Venus de Milo is the most famous sculpture of Ancient Greece art. It is an armless marble statue of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty. It can be confidently said that the figure represents Aphrodite as she was often illustrated half-nude, and the generally desirable characteristic of the sculpture contribute to this claim. The statue also depicts the story of the Judgment of Paris. The goddess of Discord gave a golden apple to a young Trojan prince named Paris, and he had to present it to the most attractive girl among the three candidates: Aphrodite, Athena, and Hera. Aphrodite won this contest and was awarded the apple. It can be said that the missing arms of the sculpture made it recognizable and famous. The statue represents true femininity due to its sensual feminine curves. The fusion of grace and grandeur makes it an etalon of female beauty. This work focuses on critically analyzing existing theories about the history of sculpture and its meaning.
The statue was made of Parian marble that is small grained altered limestone with crystallized calcium carbonate. It is also styled out of two blocks where the upper provides the nude half of her body, while her lower part is in cloth. The dark side of the statue is not in its construction or style but in how it was discovered (van Oppen and Meijer 2021). The findspot of the figure of the goddess is still unknown, and it cannot be said where exactly it was found. In addition, scholars are concerned about her arms, specifically what she did with them. Sculpture reconstruction experts estimated that the separately carved right arm of the statue of the goddess is located across the torso, with the right hand lying on her raised left knee (van Oppen and Meijer 2021). As such, she was clenching the drapery that was draped around her hips and legs. It seems that her left arm was holding the apple at eye level. Therefore, researchers did not come to an agreement, whether Venus de Milo was looking at the apple on her left arm or she was gazing into the distance.
Aphrodite’s arms, the original base or plinth were lost when the artwork arrived in Paris in 1820. This was due to the error of identification since when the statue has initially been reassembled, the other pieces were on the left hand, and the arms were not believed to belong to the figure. These pieces did not match the overall appearance of Aphrodite, making her look rough. Therefore, the statue of the goddess is mysterious as her attitudes are unknown. Yet, some professionals believe that these additional pieces were part of the original artwork (van Oppen and Meijer 2021). This is because, among sculptors, it is common to spend less time and effort on the parts that are invisible to the audience. Moreover, Greek statues were generally depicted with jewelry or items that can be helpful to identify them. Due to the small holes in the sculpture, it can be assumed that the Venus de Milo had bracelets, earrings, and a headband (van Oppen and Meijer 2021). Additionally, the statue also could be painted and decorated with true clothes.
The statue of Vénus de Milo illustrates a masterpiece of Classical Attic art. It was driven from Praxiteles, Scopas, Lysippus, or Phidias (van Oppen and Meijer 2021). It is also considered a late-Hellenistic statue by Alexander of Antiochia, who is not well-known (van Oppen and Meijer 2021). However, the Louvre’s campaign of promoting Venus de Milo as its treasure was successful. Moreover, Auguste Rodin, who is a famous French artist, wrote an ode to the statue as he praised the Venus de Milo for its balanced proportions, the perfection of divine grace, feminine beauty, and mysterious past (van Oppen and Meijer 2021). In addition, Rodin was fascinated by how the statue showed the pride of being a woman.
With regards to the discovery of Venus de Milo, the accounts of the investigation are misleading, arguing, or otherwise mutually exclusive with each other. These accounts were unearthed in communication between visiting naval officers and commanders and political authorities on the island. They all were settled in Milos, Smyrna, Athens, and Constantinople (van Oppen and Meijer 2021). For example, Charles de Riffardeau, who was a French Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople, provided Venus de Milo to King Louis XVIII (van Oppen and Meijer 2021). Following that, the king donated the statue of the female etalon to the Louvre (van Oppen and Meijer 2021). Many people were claiming that they knew the story of the figure; however, it remains a mysterious past of Aphrodite.
To conclude, Venus de Milo is a masterpiece that is the most recognizable sculpture of Greek art. It depicts the goddess Aphrodite who won the consent of beauty in the famous myth about the Trojan prince. The statue had a mysterious story of arms and its discovery as no one can say where it was found and what she did with her arms. The statue also had additional pieces and could have jewelry and be painted previously.
Work Cited
Branko, van Oppen, and Cindy Meijer. Disarming Aphrodite: Rediscovering the Venus de Milo. World History Encyclopedia, 2021. Web.