古罗马 黄铜色 重要阿佛洛狄忒雕像，佳士得 1981 年出品。31.8 厘米。西班牙出口许可证。已出版。

GODDESS VENUS HOLDING A MIRROR

Ancient Roman, 1st AD

Bronze.

Height 31.8 cm

Condition: Good condition, has two flaws at the base due to the thinness of the bronze, head repaired.

Provenance: Private collection, New York, U.S.A. Purchased at Christie's New York in 1981.

Published:

- Christie's. Antiquities and Tribal Art. 26 de junio de 1981. Lote 162.

This round bulk sculpture made in bronze, using the lost wax technique, representing the goddess Venus, standing on a plinth, naked looking at herself in a mirror, which she holds with her left hand raised in front of her face, while placing her hair with the right hand. The style of her face is of a marked production of the eastern Mediterranean.

her position presents a classical structure, a marked movement of the torso and hips, produced by the contrapposto; she supports the weight on the right leg and flexes the left. Her feet rest on a hexagonal base, decorated with a grated border, on a quadrangular podium raised by four legs.

It has considerable dimensions, it was not one of the small representations of the goddess for a lararium, without a figure for particular use, but to be placed in a prominent place within the domus, perhaps in a room for the boudoir feminine.

The mirror she holds of herself is decorated with five flat spheres surrounding her profile. Both this element and the position of the figure are similar to one preserved in the Musei Vaticani (fig. 1). In classical antiquity, women of a high position always tried to be as neat as possible, the jewelry and toiletries industry reached a true mastery, proof of this are the filigrees that were made in gold to decorate earrings and necklaces, since Etruscan times. In this way it was necessary to be able to see, the hand mirror was developed. Its importance was such that many examples with engraved mythological scenes have been found in grave goods. So, the reflection of society was transmitted in the representation of their gods, the goddess of beauty should be the most presumptuous and the first interested in presenting an excellent appearance. It is still a private act embodied in a figure of worship and devotion to honor and acquire the favors of the goddess in her own act (fig. 2).

Aphrodite, the Greek Venus, was the goddess of beauty, love, fertility, and she embodied the primordial forces of Creation. From the third century a. C. she would be identified with Venus by the Romans, a local divinity related to the same powers. The goddess, according to Hesiod, was born from the foam—the sperm—that originated in the sea around the severed genitals of Uranus. At the origins of the universe, Uranus (Heaven) joined Gea (Earth), engendering various children, but for fear that they would dethrone him, he kept them locked up in his mother's womb. Crono, fed up with this situation, seized power by castrating his father and throwing his sex into the sea:

«From the foam and in the middle of it a maiden was born. She first sailed to the divine Cythera and from there she then went to Cyprus [...]. She came out of the sea the august and beautiful goddess, and under her delicate feet the grass grew around her [...]. She was accompanied by Eros and followed by the beautiful Himerus at first, when he was born, and then on his way to the tribe of the gods. And these attributions he possesses [...]: the intimacies with maidens, the smiles, the tricks, the sweet pleasure, the love and the sweetness».

Published:

- Christie's. Antiquities and Tribal Art. 26 de junio de 1981. Lote 162.

Notes:
The piece includes authenticity certificate.
The piece includes Spanish Export License.
THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE FROM SPAIN ASKS ALL SELLERS FOR INVOICES OR OTHER DOCUMENTATION ABLE TO PROVE THE LEGALITY OF EACH ITEM BEFORE PROVIDING AN IMPORT OR EXPORT LICENSE.
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