Venere esquilina, elaborazione imperiale da modelli dello stile severo, da horti lamiani 04

The Esquiline Venus, depicting the goddess

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...

(i.e. Greek

Aphrodite Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols inclu ...

), is a smaller-than-life-size Roman nude marble sculpture of a female in

sandals Sandals are an open type of footwear, consisting of a 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 can som ...

and a

diadem A diadem is a type of crown, specifically an ornamental headband worn by monarchs and others as a badge of royalty. Overview The word derives from the Greek διάδημα ''diádēma'', "band" or "fillet", from διαδέω ''diadéō'', " ...

headdress. It is widely viewed as a 1st-century AD Roman copy of a Greek original from the 1st century BC. It is also a possible depiction of 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 ...

ruler A ruler, sometimes called a rule, line gauge, or scale, is a device used in geometry and technical drawing, as well as the engineering and construction industries, to measure distances or draw straight lines. Variants Rulers have long ...

Cleopatra VII Cleopatra VII Philopator ( grc-gre, Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ}, "Cleopatra the father-beloved"; 69 BC10 August 30 BC) was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, and its last active ruler.She was also a ...

. The sculpture is thought to have been based on an original Hellenistic statue from the Ptolemaic Kingdom. It possibly depicts Venus-Isis, a syncretism of Venus with the Egyptian goddess

Isis Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...

. The copy was likely commissioned by emperor Claudius to decorate the

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

. The

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 species ...

depicted next to the female figure includes an asp or

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 ancient Egypt. Sym ...

, depictions of the

Egyptian cobra The Egyptian cobra (''Naja haje''), also known as Ouraeus ''(derived from the Ancient Greek word: ''οὐραῖος'' - )'', is one of the most venomous snakes in North Africa, which has caused many snakebite incidents to humans. It averages rou ...

History

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

Esquiline Hill The Esquiline Hill (; la, Collis Esquilinus; it, Esquilino ) 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 ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, 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 ...

'', a variant of the ''

Laocoön and his Sons The statue of ''Laocoön and His Sons'', also called the Laocoön Group ( it, Gruppo del Laocoonte), has been one of the most famous ancient sculptures ever since it was excavated in Rome in 1506 and placed on public display in the Vatican Museums ...

'', the bust of Commodus 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 ...

, and the ''

Discobolus The ''Discobolus'' of Myron (" discus thrower", el, Δισκοβόλος, ''Diskobólos'') is an Ancient Greek sculpture completed at the start of the Classical period at around 460–450 BC. The sculpture depicts a youthful male athlete thr ...

'' 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 ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to an institutional referendum to abandon the monarchy and f ...

, following the Italian unification. The newly found sculpture soon passed into the collection of the

Capitoline Museums The Capitoline Museums ( Italian: ''Musei Capitolini'') are a group of art and 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 Pal ...

, 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 stat ...

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

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

idea of the nude female form; a face, muscular torso, and small high breasts in the fifth-century BC severe style; and pressed-together thighs typical of

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

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

(possibly in the form

Venus Anadyomene Venus Anadyomene (from Greek, "Venus Rising From the Sea") is one of the iconic representations of the goddess Venus (Aphrodite), made famous in a much-admired painting by Apelles, now lost, but described in Pliny's ''Natural History'', with t ...

), 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, forming a basic pattern of Ancient Greek sculpture that all present strictly idealized ...

'' 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 Claudius 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; 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 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 a civil war, ...

) 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 (Latin: ''Templum Veneris Genetricis'') 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 ...

, 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

). 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 politician and general who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic from a constitutional republic into the au ...

Tarsos Tarsus ( Hittite: 𒋫𒅈𒊭 ; grc, Ταρσός, label=Greek ; xcl, Տարսոն, label= Armenian ; ar, طَرسُوس ) is a historic city in south-central Turkey, inland from the Mediterranean. It is part of the Adana-Mersin metropolita ...

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 Netherlands, ...

'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 draughtsman, who served as President of the Royal Academy. Life Poynter was the son of architect Ambrose Poynter. He was born in Paris, F ...

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

Die Welt ''Die Welt'' ("The World") is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. ''Die Welt'' is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group. Its leading competitors are the ''Frankfurter All ...

, 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

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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 Snakes in art