Day 61 - Marble Venus
June 25, 2018
This gallery (168) contains a wealth of objects from the Roman Empire: marble portrait busts, an elaborate mosaic floor, glassware (including one incomplete but impressive beaker depicting gladiators and animals), coins, a chaise longue and marble table (both heavily restored, unsurprisingly), and much else.
My favorite is a life-size marble statue of Venus, carved between the first century B.C.E. and the first century C.E. She stands with her weight on her left leg and her right hip raised, giving her body a graceful curve. She is slim, with high rounded breasts and a stomach that swells only slightly beneath her navel. Her hair is parted in the middle and is drawn back at the sides. She gazes downward, and when I look up at her face, I'm struck by how young she looks - adolescent, really, or maybe in her early 20s, with her unlined face and slighly open mouth.
She is clad only in a piece of cloth that is knotted over her pubis.Her arms have been lost, but the caption says that her right hand probably reached upward to arrange her hair, while her left arm reached down to hold the cloth. But other than that, she does not seem to be trying to cover her nudity; rather, her upraised arm only calls attention to her beautiful body. The caption also says that Venus was such a popular subject that some Roman matrons had similarly semi-clothed sculptures of themselves made in her image. I wonder whether, had I been one of them, I would have done the same. Maybe not - I think I tend toward self-effacement. But maybe so - if I wanted to be like other fashionable women.
My favorite is a life-size marble statue of Venus, carved between the first century B.C.E. and the first century C.E. She stands with her weight on her left leg and her right hip raised, giving her body a graceful curve. She is slim, with high rounded breasts and a stomach that swells only slightly beneath her navel. Her hair is parted in the middle and is drawn back at the sides. She gazes downward, and when I look up at her face, I'm struck by how young she looks - adolescent, really, or maybe in her early 20s, with her unlined face and slighly open mouth.
She is clad only in a piece of cloth that is knotted over her pubis.Her arms have been lost, but the caption says that her right hand probably reached upward to arrange her hair, while her left arm reached down to hold the cloth. But other than that, she does not seem to be trying to cover her nudity; rather, her upraised arm only calls attention to her beautiful body. The caption also says that Venus was such a popular subject that some Roman matrons had similarly semi-clothed sculptures of themselves made in her image. I wonder whether, had I been one of them, I would have done the same. Maybe not - I think I tend toward self-effacement. But maybe so - if I wanted to be like other fashionable women.
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