Artwork Page for Head of Aphrodite

Details / Information for Head of Aphrodite

Head of Aphrodite

100–200 CE

Italy, Roman

Medium
marble
Measurements
Overall: 30.3 cm (11 15/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of J. H. Wade 1926.53
Public Domain
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Location
010 Focus Gallery
Print
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Did You Know?

The elaborate hairstyle, arranged in a bow atop the head, identifies this figure as Aphrodite.

Description

With idealized features including a straight nose, small mouth with thick lips, and a hairstyle best known from the so-called Capitoline Venus (now in Rome), this head likely belonged to a full-scale statue of the goddess of love. Like the Capitoline Venus and many other sculptures of the Roman period, it probably showed the goddess nude and bathing, harking back to the groundbreaking sculpture of Aphrodite at Knidos, carved by Praxiteles in the mid-fourth century BC.
Marble head of the goddess Aphrodite looking straight ahead, her wavy hair pulled back into a bow shape on top of her head. She has a small mouth barely wider than her chipped nose and thick lips, curving up slightly at the edges. Rust and dark-brown colored spots speckle the marble, particularly in Aphrodite's hair.

Head of Aphrodite

100–200 CE

Italy, Roman

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