The Esquiline Venus is a smaller-than-life-size Roman nude marble sculpture of a female in

sandals Sandals are an open type of shoe, consisting of a Sole (shoe), sole held to the wearer's foot by straps going over the instep and around the ankle. Sandals can also have a heel. While the distinction between sandals and other types of footwear ...

and a

diadem A diadem is a Crown (headgear), crown, specifically an ornamental headband worn by monarchs and others as a badge of Monarch, royalty. Overview The word derives from the Ancient Greek, Greek διάδημα ''diádēma'', "band" or "fillet", fro ...

headdress. There is no definitive scholarly consensus on either its provenience or its subject. It is widely viewed as a 1st-century CE Roman copy (i.e. an

interpretatio graeca , or "interpretation by means of Greek odels, refers to the tendency of the ancient Greeks to identify foreign deities with their own gods. It is a discourse used to interpret or attempt to understand the mythology and religion of other cult ...

) of a

Hellenistic In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

original from the 1st-century BCE

Ptolemaic Kingdom The Ptolemaic Kingdom (; , ) or Ptolemaic Empire was an ancient Greek polity based in Ancient Egypt, Egypt during the Hellenistic period. It was founded in 305 BC by the Ancient Macedonians, Macedonian Greek general Ptolemy I Soter, a Diadochi, ...

, commissioned by emperor

Claudius Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; ; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54), or Claudius, was a Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Nero Claudius Drusus, Drusus and Ant ...

to decorate the

Horti Lamiani The Horti Lamiani (Lamian Gardens) was a luxurious complex consisting of an ancient Roman villa with large gardens and outdoor rooms. It was located on the Esquiline Hill in Rome, in the area around the present Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II (Rome) ...

. The figure may depict the

Ptolemaic Ptolemaic is the adjective formed from the name Ptolemy, and may refer to: Pertaining to the Ptolemaic dynasty *Ptolemaic dynasty, the Macedonian Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter *Ptolemaic Kingdom Pertaining t ...

ruler A ruler, sometimes called a rule, scale, line gauge, or metre/meter stick, is an instrument used to make length measurements, whereby a length is read from a series of markings called "rules" along an edge of the device. Usually, the instr ...

Cleopatra VII Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was ...

; it may also have been intended to represent the Roman-

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

syncretic Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thus ...

deity Venus-

Isis Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...

. A

vase A vase ( or ) is an open container. It can be made from a number of materials, such as ceramics, glass, non- rusting metals, such as aluminium, brass, bronze, or stainless steel. Even wood has been used to make vases, either by using tree specie ...

next to the nude figure includes an asp or

uraeus drawing of a Uraeus The Uraeus () or Ouraeus (Ancient Greek: , ; Egyptian: ', "rearing cobra", plural: ''Uraei'') is the stylized, upright form of an Egyptian cobra, used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity and divine authority in anci ...

and depictions of the

Egyptian cobra The Egyptian cobra (''Naja haje'') is one of the most venomous species of snakes in North Africa. It averages roughly in length; the longest specimen recorded so far measured . Etymology and taxonomy ''Naja haje'' was first described by Swed ...

, symbols which support the Cleopatra interpretation.

History

The ''Esquiline Venus'' was found in 1874 in Piazza Dante on the

Esquiline Hill The Esquiline Hill (; ; ) is one of the Seven Hills of Rome. Its southernmost cusp is the ''Oppius'' ( Oppian Hill). Etymology The origin of the name ''Esquiline'' is still under much debate. One view is that the hill was named after the ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, probably part of the site of the

, one of the imperial gardens, rich archaeological sources of classical sculpture. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the thirteen Medici ''

Niobids In Greek mythology, the Niobids were the children of Amphion of Thebes and Niobe, slain by Apollo and Artemis because Niobe, born of the royal house of Phrygia, had boastfully compared the greater number of her own offspring with those of Leto, ...

'', a variant of the ''

Laocoön and his Sons The statue of ''Laocoön and His Sons'', also called the Laocoön Group (), has been one of the most famous ancient sculptures since it was excavated in Rome in 1506 and put on public display in the Vatican Museums, where it remains today. The st ...

'', the bust of

Commodus Commodus (; ; 31 August 161 – 31 December 192) was Roman emperor from 177 to 192, first serving as nominal co-emperor under his father Marcus Aurelius and then ruling alone from 180. Commodus's sole reign is commonly thought to mark the end o ...

with the attributes of

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the Gr ...

, and the ''

Discobolus The ''Discobolus'' by Myron (" discus thrower", , ''Diskobólos'') is an ancient Greek sculpture completed at the start of the Classical period in around 460–450 BC that depicts an ancient Greek athlete throwing a discus. Though the origin ...

'' had already been found here. After 1870 intensive building work was ongoing at the site, as part of preparations to make Rome the new capital of the

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy (, ) was a unitary state that existed from 17 March 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 10 June 1946, when the monarchy wa ...

, following the

Italian unification The unification of Italy ( ), also known as the Risorgimento (; ), was the 19th century political and social movement that in 1861 ended in the annexation of various states of the Italian peninsula and its outlying isles to the Kingdom of ...

. The newly found sculpture soon passed into the collection of the

Capitoline Museums The Capitoline Museums () are a group of art and archaeology, archaeological museums in Piazza del Campidoglio, on top of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy. The historic seats of the museums are Palazzo dei Conservatori and Palazzo Nuovo, facing ...

, where it now resides, and is usually on display at its Museo Centrale Montemartini. In style the Esquiline Venus is an example of the Pasitelean "eclectic"

Neo-Attic Neo-Attic or Atticizing is a sculptural style, beginning in Hellenistic sculpture and vase-painting of the 2nd century BC and climaxing in Roman art of the 2nd century AD, copying, adapting or closely following the style shown in reliefs and sta ...

school, combining elements from a variety of other previous schools – a

Praxitelean Praxiteles (; ) of Athens, the son of Cephisodotus the Elder, was the most renowned of the Attic sculptors of the 4th century BC. He was the first to sculpt the nude female form in a life-size statue. While no indubitably attributable sculpture ...

idea of the nude female form; a face, muscular torso, and small high breasts in the fifth-century BC

severe style The Severe style, or Early Classical style, was the dominant idiom of Greek sculpture in the period ca. 490 to 450 BCE. It marks the breakdown of the canonical forms of archaic art and the transition to the greatly expanded vocabulary and express ...

; and pressed-together thighs typical of

sculptures. Its arms must have broken off when the statue fell after the imperial park in which it stood fell into neglect after antiquity. They have been frequently restored in paintings ( see below), but never in reality.

Subject

The statue's subject has variously been interpreted, as the Roman goddess

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

(possibly in the form

Venus Anadyomene ''Venus Anadyomene'' (, "Venus, Rising from the Sea") is one of the iconic representations of the goddess Venus (mythology), Venus (Aphrodite), made famous in a much-admired painting by Apelles, now lost, but described in Natural History (encycl ...

), as a nude mortal female bather, a female version of the ''

diadumenos The ''Diadumenos'' ("diadem-bearer"), together with the ''Doryphoros'' (spear bearer), are two of the most famous figural types of the sculptor Polyclitus (sculptor), Polyclitus, forming a basic pattern of Ancient Greek sculpture that all prese ...

'' tying up the hair with a fillet ( see below). The ''Esquiline Venus'' is generally thought to be a mid-1st-century AD Roman copy of a 1st-century BC Greek original from the school of Pasiteles.Roller, Duane W. (2010).
Cleopatra: a biography
'. Oxford: Oxford University Press. , p. 175. Its provenance has been characterized both as a Ptolemaic-Egyptian commission or as a copy of one, perhaps a copy commissioned by

himself for the imperial gardens. This identification is based on the statue's Egyptian-style robe, descending over a vase, the asp or

on the vase, and

curly hair Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and fin ...

; if correct, these features could make it a cult statue of the goddess

, or an image (perhaps that set up by

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...

) of

as Isis or Venus-Isis (the two were frequently conflated). This view is backed by the Italian philologist Licinio Glori in 1955. Or she could be a copy of the statue of Cleopatra set up by Caesar in the

temple of Venus Genetrix The Temple of Venus Genetrix () is a ruined temple in the Forum of Caesar, Rome, dedicated to the Roman goddess '' Venus Genetrix'', the founding goddess of the Julian gens. It was dedicated to the goddess on 26 September 46 BCE by Julius Caes ...

, a view supported by Bernard Andreae. In addition to hairstyle and facial features, the apparent royal

worn over the head is also an indication that it depicts Cleopatra.Polo, Francisco Pina (2013). "The Great Seducer: Cleopatra, Queen and Sex Symbol" in Silke Knippschild and Marta Garcia Morcillo (eds),
Seduction and Power: Antiquity in the Visual and Performing Arts
', 183-197. London: Bloomsbury Academic. , pp. 186, 194 footnote #10. Detractors of this theory argue that the facial features on the Berlin bust and coinage of Cleopatra differ and assert that it was unlikely she would be depicted as the naked goddess

(i.e. the Greek

Aphrodite Aphrodite (, ) is an Greek mythology, ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, procreation, and as her syncretism, syncretised Roman counterpart , desire, Sexual intercourse, sex, fertility, prosperity, and ...

). However, she was depicted in an Egyptian statue as the goddess

. Cleopatra was also depicted on some of her coins as Venus-Aphrodite, and reportedly dressed as Aphrodite when meeting

Mark Antony Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman people, Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the Crisis of the Roman Republic, transformation of the Roman Republic ...

Tarsos Tarsus (; Hittite: 𒋫𒅈𒊭 ; ; ; ) is a municipality and district of Mersin Province, Turkey. Its area is 2,029 km2, and its population is 350,732 (2022). It is a historic city, inland from the Mediterranean Sea. It is part of the ...

in 42 BC.

In modern art

The sculpture inspired many artistic reconstructions in the decade after its discovery. Chief among these are

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema ( ; born Lourens Alma Tadema, ; 8 January 1836 – 25 June 1912) was a Dutch painter who later settled in the United Kingdom, becoming the last officially recognised denizen in 1873. Born in Dronryp, the Netherland ...

's ''A Sculptor's Model'' (1877) and

Edward Poynter Sir Edward John Poynter, 1st Baronet (20 March 183626 July 1919) was an English painter, designer, and Drawing, draughtsman, who served as President of the Royal Academy. Life Poynter was the son of architect Ambrose Poynter. He was born in P ...

's ''Diadumene'' (1884). These both portrayed the statue's model binding her hair with a strip of fabric (as with the statue type

) in preparation for modelling for the sculptor or for taking a bath respectively. Poynter believed this to be the correct reconstruction partly because the remains of the little finger of her left hand are visible on the back of her head, suggesting that her left arm was raised to hold her hair in place, whilst the right hand wound the fabric. At the Museo Centrale Montemartini, the Esquiline Venus is now usually displayed behind a 'pool' (actually a glass floor panel) in tribute to this rendering.

" target="_blank" class="mw-redirect" title="Exhibitions

From December 2006 to February 4, 2007, the sculpture was the centrepiece of the exhibition "Cleopatra and the Caesars" at the Bucerius Kunst Forum">Exhibitions

From December 2006 to February 4, 2007, the sculpture was the centrepiece of the exhibition "Cleopatra and the Caesars" at the Bucerius Kunst Forum
at Hamburg, following which, from March to June 2007, it was shown at the Louvre Museum, Louvre for the Praxiteles exhibition.

Notes

References

*Mary Beard (classicist), Mary Beard, 'Archaeology and Collecting in late-nineteenth century Rome', from exhibition catalogue to the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

exhibition "Ancient Art to Post-Impressionism - Masterpieces from the

Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek ("ny" means "new" in Danish; "Glyptotek" comes from the Greek root ''glyphein'', to carve, and ''theke'', storing place), commonly known simply as Glyptoteket, is an art museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. The collection ...

, Copenhagen" *

Charles Waldstein Sir Charles Waldstein (March 30, 1856 – March 21, 1927), known as Sir Charles Walston from 1918 to 1927, was an Anglo- American archaeologist. He also competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens. Life Waldstein was born into a Jewish family ...

'Pasiteles and Arkesilaos, the Venus Genetrix and the Venus of the Esquiline'
''The American Journal of Archaeology and of the History of the Fine Arts'', Vol. 3, No. 1/2 (Jun., 1887), pp. 1–13

Cleopatra?

*''Das Gesicht der Göttin.'', 16.10.2006, ''

Der Spiegel (, , stylized in all caps) is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of about 724,000 copies in 2022, it is one of the largest such publications in Europe. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

.'' Hamburg 2006, 42, S. 181 *Berthold Seewald, So sah Kleopatra wirklich aus,

Die Welt (, ) is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group and it is considered a newspaper of record in Germany. Its leading competitors are the ...

, 26 October 2006 (in Germa

*Bernard Andreae, Dorothea Gall, Günter Grimm, Heinz Heinen et al., "Kleopatra und die Caesaren", hrsg. von Ortrud Westheider, Karsten Müller (2006: Munich, Hirmer Verlag) *Cleo Uncovered (exhibition review of "Cleopatra and the Caesars"), Current World Archaeology 20, pages 42–43

External links

3D model of the Louvre's Esquiline torso via photogrammetric survey

Exposed: The Victorian Nude: Room guide: Classical statues - Tate

(specificall
here
an
here
. {{Sculptures of Aphrodite 1st-century Roman sculptures 1874 archaeological discoveries Archaeological discoveries in Italy

Claudius Cultural depictions of Cleopatra Isis Marble sculptures in Italy Neo-Attic sculptures Nude sculptures in Italy Ptolemaic Kingdom Roman copies of 1st-century BC Greek sculptures Sculptures of Venus Sculptures of snakes