Aphrodite Genetrix Musei Capitolini MC1078

The Venus Genetrix (also spelled ) is a sculptural type which shows 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 ...

in her aspect of ''Genetrix'' ("foundress of the family"), as she was honoured by the

Julio-Claudian The Julio-Claudian dynasty comprised the first five Roman emperors: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. This line of emperors ruled the Roman Empire, from its formation (under Augustus, in 27 BC) until the last of the line, Emper ...

dynasty of Rome, which claimed her as their ancestor. Contemporary references identify the sculptor as a Greek named

Arcesilaus Arcesilaus (; ; 316/5–241/0 BC) was a Greece, Greek Hellenistic philosophy, Hellenistic philosopher. He was the founder of Academic Skepticism and what is variously called the Second or Middle or New Academy – the phase of the Platonic Acade ...

. The statue was set up in

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 ...

new forum New Forum () was a political movement in East Germany formed in the months leading up to the collapse of the East German state. It was founded on 9 September 1989 and was the first independent (non- National Front) political movement to be rec ...

, probably as the

cult statue In the practice of religion, a cult image is a human-made object that is venerated or worshipped for the deity, spirit or daemon that it embodies or represents. In several traditions, including the ancient religions of Egypt, Greece and Rome ...

in the

cella In Classical architecture, a or naos () is the inner chamber of an ancient Greek or Roman temple. Its enclosure within walls has given rise to extended meanings: of a hermit's or monk's cell, and (since the 17th century) of a biological cell ...

of his

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 ...

. Through this historical chance, a Roman designation is applied to an iconological type of

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 ...

that originated among the

Greeks Greeks or Hellenes (; , ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, southern Albania, Greeks in Turkey#History, Anatolia, parts of Greeks in Italy, Italy and Egyptian Greeks, Egypt, and to a l ...

History

On the night before the decisive

battle of Pharsalus The Battle of Pharsalus was the decisive battle of Caesar's Civil War fought on 9 August 48 BC near Pharsalus in Central Greece. Julius Caesar and his allies formed up opposite the army of the Roman Republic under the command of Pompey. ...

(48 BC), Julius Caesar vowed to dedicate a temple at Rome to Venus, supposed ancestor of his ''

gens In ancient Rome, a gens ( or , ; : gentes ) was a family consisting of individuals who shared the same ''nomen gentilicium'' and who claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens, sometimes identified by a distinct cognomen, was cal ...

''. In fulfilment of his vow he erected a temple of Venus Genetrix in the new forum he constructed. In establishing this new cult of Venus, Caesar was affirming the claim of his own ''gens'' to descent from the goddess, through

Iulus Ascanius (; Ancient Greek: Ἀσκάνιος) was a legendary king of Alba Longa (traditional reign: 1176 BC to 1138 BC) and the son of the Trojan hero Aeneas and of Creusa, daughter of Priam. He is a significant figure in Roman mythology b ...

, the son of

Aeneas In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas ( , ; from ) was a Troy, Trojan hero, the son of the Trojan prince Anchises and the Greek goddess Aphrodite (equivalent to the Roman Venus (mythology), Venus). His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy ...

. It was in part to flatter this connection that

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

wrote the ''

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...

''. His public cult expressed the unique standing of Caesar at the end of the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establis ...

and, in that sense, of a personal association expressed as public cult was the innovation in Roman religion. Two types, represented in many Roman examples in marble, bronze, and terra cotta, contend among scholars for identification as representing the type of this draped ''Venus Genetrix''. Besides the type described further below, is another, in which Venus carries an infant

Eros Eros (, ; ) is the Greek god of love and sex. The Romans referred to him as Cupid or Amor. In the earliest account, he is a primordial god, while in later accounts he is the child of Aphrodite. He is usually presented as a handsome young ma ...

on her shoulder.

Original

In 420 - 410 BC, the Athenian sculptor

Callimachus Callimachus (; ; ) was an ancient Greek poet, scholar, and librarian who was active in Alexandria during the 3rd century BC. A representative of Ancient Greek literature of the Hellenistic period, he wrote over 800 literary works, most of which ...

created a bronze sculpture of Aphrodite (now lost). It showed her dressed in a light but clinging

chiton Chitons () are marine molluscs of varying size in the class Polyplacophora ( ), formerly known as Amphineura. About 940 extant and 430 fossil species are recognized. They are also sometimes known as sea cradles or coat-of-mail shells or suck ...

peplos A peplos () is a body-length garment established as typical attire for women in ancient Greece by , during the late Archaic Greece, Archaic and Classical Greece, Classical period. It was a long, rectangular cloth with the top edge folded down ab ...

, which was lowered on the left shoulder to reveal her left breast and hung down in a sheer face and decoratively carved so as not to hide the outlines of the woman's body. Venus was depicted holding the apple won in the

Judgement of Paris The Judgement of Paris is a story from Greek mythology, which was one of the events that led up to the Trojan War, and in later versions to the foundation of Rome. Eris, the goddess of discord, was not invited to the wedding of Peleus and Th ...

in her left hand, whilst her right hand moved to cover her head. From the lost bronze original are derived all surviving copies. The composition was frontal, the body's form monumental, and in the surviving Roman replicas its proportions are close to the Polyclitean canon.

Caesar's Venus Genetrix

The now-lost original statue, or Sabina in the same pose, is represented on the reverse of a

denarius The ''denarius'' (; : ''dēnāriī'', ) was the standard Ancient Rome, Roman silver coin from its introduction in the Second Punic War to the reign of Gordian III (AD 238–244), when it was gradually replaced by the ''antoninianus''. It cont ...

above the legend (‘to Venus Genetrix’), with

Vibia Sabina Vibia Sabina (83–136/137) was a Roman Empress, wife and second cousin once removed to the Roman Emperor Hadrian. She was the daughter of Salonia Matidia, Matidia (niece of Roman Emperor Trajan) and suffect consul Lucius Vibius Sabinus. Early ...

on the obverse. The iconological type of the statue, of which there are numerous Roman marble copies and bronze reductions at every level of skill, was identified as ''Venus Genetrix'' (Venus Universal Mother) by

Ennio Quirino Visconti Ennio Quirino Visconti (November 1, 1751 – February 7, 1818) was a Roman politician, antiquarian, and art historian, papal Prefect of Antiquities, and the leading expert of his day in the field of ancient Roman sculpture. His son, Pietro Ercole ...

in his catalogue of the papal collections in the Pio-Clementino Museum by comparison with this denarius. "From the inscription on the coins, from the similarity between the figure on the coins and the statue in the Louvre and from the fact that Arkesilaos established the type of Venus Genetrix as patron goddess of Rome, and ancestress of the Julian race, the identification was a very natural one." A ''Venus Genetrix'' in the Pio-Clementino Museum has been completed with a Roman portrait head of Sabina, on this basis.

Other copies

A number of the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

examples are in major collections, including the

Centrale Montemartini The Capitoline Museums () 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 Palazzo Nuovo, facing on the cent ...

(discovered in the

Gardens of Maecenas The Gardens of Maecenas, or ''Horti Maecenatis'', constituted the luxurious ancient Roman estate of Gaius Maecenas, an Augustus, Augustan-era imperial advisor and patron of the arts. The property was among the first in Italy to emulate the style ...

Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is a museum institution located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. It has list of largest art museums, one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it cove ...

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, the

Royal Ontario Museum The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a museum of art, world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the largest museums in North America and the largest in Canada. It attracts more than one million visitors every year ...

, the

J. Paul Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California, United States, housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. It is operated by the J. Paul Getty Trust, the world's wealthies ...

, the

Louvre Museum The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

, and the

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and holds the large ...

Aphrodite of Fréjus

A 1.64 m-high Roman statue, dating from the end of the 1st century BC to the start of the 1st century AD, in

Parian marble Parian marble is a fine-grained, semi translucent, and pure-white marble quarried during the classical antiquity, classical era on the Greece, Greek List of islands of Greece, island of Paros in the Aegean Sea. A subtype, referred to as Parian ' ...

, was discovered at

Fréjus Fréjus (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Var (department), Var Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region in Southeastern France. It neighbours Saint-Raphaël, Var, Saint-Raphaël ...

(Forum Julii) in 1650. It is considered as the best Roman copy of the lost Greek work. The neck, the left hand, the fingers of the right hand, the plinth, and many parts of the drape are modern restorations. It was present in the palace of the

Tuileries The Tuileries Palace (, ) was a palace in Paris which stood on the right bank of the Seine, directly in the west-front of the Louvre Palace. It was the Parisian residence of most French monarchs, from Henri IV to Napoleon III, until it was b ...

in 1678, and was transported from there to the park of

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...

about 1685. It was seized in the Revolution, and has thus been in the Louvre since 1803, as Inventaire MR 367 (n° usuel Ma 525). The statue was restored in 1999 thanks to the patronage of

FIMALAC FIMALAC (known as Financière Marc de Lacharrière) is a French holding company focusing on credit rating and risk management companies. It manages commercial real estate through North Colonnade Ltd, and private equity funds through its subsidiary ...

Hermitage Museum

Another Roman copy of the statue, which is 2.14 m high, was in the collection of Giampietro Campana, marchese di Cavelli, Villa Campana, Rome, from which it was acquired for the Hermitage in 1861, following Campana's disgrace. The head does not belong to this statue, which must originally have had a portrait head. In Rome, an ideal figure of a divinity might often be adapted slightly (here, for instance the chiton covers the breast) and given a separately made portrait head. Evidence that this was the case here can be seen in the locks of hair falling onto the shoulders. These are also seen in posthumous portraits of

Agrippina the Elder (Vipsania) Agrippina the Elder (also, in Latin, , "Germanicus's Agrippina"; – AD 33) was a prominent member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. She was the daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (a close supporter of the first Roman emperor, Aug ...

, which enables us to date this statue to the second quarter of the 1st century AD.

Notes

External links

General

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. 1-13Cornelia G. Harcum, 'A Statue of the Type Called the Venus Genetrix in the Royal Ontario Museum', American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1927), pp. 141-152

Aphrodite of Fréjus

Venus of Fréjus (Louvre catalogue)A terracotta reduction
from Myrina (also at the Louvre)

Hermitage

TheoiStatue of Venus
Hermitage Collection online {{DEFAULTSORT:Genetrix, Venus Sculptures of Venus Sculptures in the Hermitage Museum Ancient Greek and Roman sculptures in the Louvre Cult images