Back view of a tarnished bronze statue of a standing nude woman, her arms away from her body, as she emerges from the darkness. The lighting amplifies the texture of the statue’s surface.
Gray metal sculpture with a green patina of a crowned nude woman standing on a circular pedestal, one arm down, grasping an object, and the other curled towards her shoulder.
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Unknown Maker, Greek

Aphrodite
Now On View

Maker

Unknown Maker, Greek

Culture

Greek

Title

Aphrodite

Period

Hellenistic

Year

199-100 BCE

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Materials

bronze

Dimensions

Height: 47.3 cm (18 5/8 inches)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Museum Appropriation Fund and Special Gift Fund

Object Number

26.117

Type

Publications

Exhibition History

Being and Believing in the Natural World
Perspectives from the Ancient Mediterranean, Asia, and Indigenous North America
Oct 22, 2022 – Jun 04, 2023

Label copy

According to Greek myth, Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, rose from the sea. As she walked along the coast, flowers grew under her feet. The personification of nature’s creative power, she was the mother of all living beings, protecting those who worshipped her. Many depictions of Aphrodite survive from ancient Greece and Rome, where they adorned homes, gardens, and sanctuaries. Wealthy patrons may have installed this bronze in a garden shrine. The oil flask may have been used for liquid offerings. On it, Aphrodite rides a chariot drawn by swans.

—GB

Ancient Greek and Roman Galleries
Sep 22, 2010

Label copy

This bronze figure of Aphrodite, now green from oxidation, once would have been a warm brown. To heighten a sense of naturalism, the eyes and hair ribbon were inlaid with silver and the lips with copper. The left arm, reconstructed from the shoulders down, now shows her holding an apple; it was originally upraised like her right, to adjust a necklace, now missing. The right foot and ankle have also been replaced. These restorations date to the early 19th century.

In the 4th century BCE, the first nude image of Aphrodite was sculpted, breaking a long tradition of depicting Greek goddesses clothed. It was fitting, however, that the goddess of love and beauty was the first to be portrayed in this new way. The motif became so popular that hundreds of such images of Aphrodite survive from ancient Greece and Rome, where they adorned homes, gardens, and sanctuaries. Exceedingly rare today, bronze examples like this one must have been prized possessions of wealthy patrons.

An Exhibition of Classical Antiquities
Sep 01, 1981 – Apr 01, 1982

Image use

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Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Unknown Maker, Greek
Aphrodite, 199-100 BCE
Bronze
Height: 47.3 cm (18 5/8 inches)
Museum Appropriation Fund and Special Gift Fund 26.117

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