1000 Scupltures of Genius. Patrick Bade
Vatican (Italy). Greek Antiquity.
Aphrodite, goddess of love, beauty, and sex, was renowned for her own beauty. The Aphrodite of Knidos was one of the first nude female sculptures in the Greek world, and caused quite a stir. It portrays Aphrodite as the epitome of female beauty: a goddess, but rendered accessible to mere mortals through her vulnerability. That vulnerability, expressed through the combination of her nudity and her shy stance, was emphasised through the placement of the statue in an outdoor shrine in a place where it could be directly approached and seen up close. The nude Aphrodite became a common subject for sculpture in the fourth century B.C.E. and following, in part due the popularity of this piece. It is also likely that Aphrodite provided sculptors with the opportunity to showcase the female form in a sensual and erotic manner under the guise of a reverential image of a god.
88. Anonymous. Apoxyomenos, copy after a bronze original created around 330 B.C.E. by Lysippos. Marble, h: 205 cm. Museo Pio Clementino, Vatican (Italy). Greek Antiquity.
In the fourth century, standing male statues of idealised athletes remained a popular subject for sculpture. The poses became more varied, however, as sculptors experimented with forms that could be viewed from multiple angles. The Apoxyomenos, or Man scraping Himself, is an example of innovation of pose. His right arm extends forward, reaching out of the plane in which the rest of his body lies. Before exercising, a Greek athlete would apply oil to his body. He would then return to the bath house, after engaging in sport, and scrape the oil off himself. The subject of the Apoxyomenos is in the process of scraping himself clean.
89. Anonymous. Hermes tying his Sandal, Roman copy after a Greek original created during the 4th century B.C.E. by Lysippos. Marble, h: 161 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris (France). Greek Antiquity.
90. Anonymous. Belvedere Apollo, copy after a Greek original by Leochares created around c. 330 B.C.E. Marble, h: 224 cm.Museo Pio Clementino, Rome (Italy). Greek Antiquity.
The Belvedere Apollo has long enjoyed fame, known as the prototypical work of Greek art. This fame springs from its rediscovery during the Renaissance of the fifteenth century. At that time, wealthy Italian nobles began to collect ancient sculpture that was being discovered in the ruins of Roman Italy. The Belvedere Apollo went to the collection of the Pope, and was displayed in the courtyard of the Belvedere villa in the Vatican. There, it was seen by countless visitors and visiting artists, who sketched the piece. Copies were made for various courts of Europe. The proud, princely bearing of the figure, along with the delicate beauty of Apollo’s face, had great appeal among the aristocratic classes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and to the Romantics of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
91. Anonymous. Meleager, copy after a Greek original created around c. 340 B.C.E. by Skopas. Marble, h: 123 cm. Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard (United States). Greek Antiquity.
92. Anonymous. Athenian Tombstone, c. 340 B.C.E. Marble, h: 168 cm. National Archaeological Museum, Athens (Greece). Greek Antiquity.
93. Anonymous. Tombstone from Mnesarete, c. 380 B.C.E. Marble, h: 166 cm. Glyptothek, Munich (Germany). Greek Antiquity.
94. Anonymous. Demeter of Knidos, c. 340–330 B.C.E. Marble, h: 153 cm. The British Museum, London (United Kingdom). Greek Antiquity.
95. Anonymous. Capitoline Venus, Roman copy after a Greek original created around the 3rd century B.C.E. by Praxiteles. Marble, h: 193 cm. Musei Capitolini, Rome (Italy). Greek Antiquity.
96. Anonymous. Playing Girls, end of the 4th century-beginning of the 3rd century B.C.E. Terracotta, h: 26 cm. The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (Russia). Greek Antiquity.
97. Anonymous. Sarcophagus of Velthur Partunus, so-called “Magnate”, third quarter of the 4th century B.C.E. Painted marble and limestone, Museo Archeologico di Tarquinia, Tarquinia (Italy). Etruscan Antiquity.
98. Anonymous. Sarcophagus of Laris Pulenas from Tarquinia, 3rd century B.C.E. Nenfro. Museo Archeologico di Tarquinia, Tarquinia (Italy). Etruscan Antiquity.
99. Anonymous. Venus and Cupid, Roman copy after a Greek original created at the end of the 4th century B.C.E., restored at the end of the 17th century by Alessandro Algardi. Marble, h: 174 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris (France). Greek Antiquity.
Aphrodite became a common subject for Greek sculptors in the fourth century B.C.E. and later, because her renowned beauty provided an acceptable excuse for an erotic representation of the female body. She is sometimes shown, as here, with her son Eros, known to the Romans as Cupid, and in later art as “putti,” the winged babies symbolising earthly and divine love. In Roman art and mythology, Aphrodite became Venus, goddess of love. To the Romans she had a more elevated status, seen as the progenitor of the line of Caesar, Augustus, and the Julio-Claudian emperors, and by extension as an embodiment of the Roman people. This playful depiction of Aphrodite and Eros, or Venus and Cupid, is more suggestive of the Greek view of Aphrodite, who saw her not only as the symbol of sensual beauty, but also as occasionally silly and humorous.
100. Anonymous. Hermes with the Infant Dionysos, copy after an original created at the end of the 4th century B.C.E. by Praxiteles. Marble, h: 215 cm. Archaeological Museum, Olympia (Greece). Greek Antiquity.
101. Anonymous. Silenus with the Infant Dionysos, Roman copy after a Greek original created during the 4th century B.C.E. Marble, h: 190 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris (France). Greek Antiquity.
102. Anonymous. Artemis with a Hind, called “Diane of Versailles”, Roman copy after an original created around 330 B.C.E. by Leochares. Marble, h: 200 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris (France). Greek Antiquity.
This depiction of a strong, striding Artemis hunting with a deer by her side is thought to derive from a Greek original of the fourth century B.C.E. Artemis was one of the virgin goddesses, a huntress and protector of the wild and of fertility; her association with fertility made her also the goddess of childbirth. She was a twin to the god Apollo, and copies of this statue are often paired with copies of the Belvedere Apollo. Her dual role as a hunter and a protector of animals is seen in this piece. Although she is hunting, she is accompanied by a deer, or hind, which is under her protection. With one hand, she reaches for an arrow. The other hand has been restored and may have originally held a bow. Her energetic stride, and the movement of her short dress as she walks, is typical of the new variety of poses seen in statues of the fourth century and later.
103. Anonymous. The Barberini Faun, c. 220 B.C.E. Marble, h: 215 cm. Glyptothek, Munich (Germany). Greek Antiquity.
The wealth of the Hellenistic period meant that many people could afford sculpture for their private houses and gardens. Consequently, more profane, even erotic, subjects were introduced to the repertoire of Greek art. Here, a sleeping, and probably drunk, satyr lounges sprawled out on an animal skin. The pose is unabashedly erotic,