Aphrodite presentation compressed

Aphrodite Late Hellenistic Marble 1st century B.C. Height 56 cm

A STATUETTE OF A "NYMPH TYPE" APHRODITE H. 56 cm. Marble.

Late Hellenistic. 1st cent. B.C. This masterfully sculpted marble shows the goddess Aphrodite in a “Nymph type” pose. She rests her slightly elevated left foot on a rock, while bending forwards to support herself, with arms folded, on her raised left thigh.

Her lavishly draped mantle, which is so strongly suggestive of fine cloth that the contours of the body underneath shine through here and there, is loosely draped around her lower body and appears to be slipping off.

The glimpse of the pubis and buttocks that this affords us underscores the erotic connotations of the piece already conveyed by the figure’s parted legs.

With her small firm breasts, narrow waist, very feminine hips and powerfully modeled thighs, the goddess is remarkable for her youthful beauty. This particular type, developed mainly in two-dimensional works, can probably be traced back to a Hellenistic original of the 3rd or 2nd cent.

B.C. The finely differentiated folds of the cloth, like the sensitivity with which they are made to cling to the body, attest to the exceptional quality of the work and allow it to be dated to the Late Hellenistic Period.

The head, neck, parts of the arms and left foot are missing. Drapery slightly worn in places.

Provenance: Formerly Collection of J.-P. Mariaud de Serres, Paris, France, acquired before 2000.

On the "Nymph type" Aphrodite, s. LIMC II (1984) 74 f. nos. 644-656 pls. 63 f. s.v. Aphrodite (A. Delivorrias).

ABOUT THE PROVENANCE: Formerly Collection of J.-P. Mariaud de Serres, Paris

Jean-Philippe Mariaud de Serres

Mémoires d'un esthète voyageur LE FIGARO Par Valérie Sasportas

Publié le 02/02/2011

Parmi les grands voyageurs, il y a ceux qui collectionnent les récits, et ceux qui rapportent des trésors. Le galeriste parisien et expert Jean-Philippe Mariaud de Serres appartient aux seconds. Un esthète globe-trotteur qui sillonna surtout le Moyen-Orient car il parlait l'arabe, arpenta les musées, les sites archéologiques, explora l'histoire des plus arides cylindres et autres sceaux de Mésopotamie aux objets un peu baroques de la mythologie et de l'art romain», se souvient son ami libanais Naji Asfar, antiquaire à Beyrouth où les deux hommes se connurent en culottes courtes.

Dans son préambule au catalogue de vente de la collection Jean-Philippe Mariaud de Serres, disparu en 2007, cet ami-là lui rend un bel hommage, ponctué de ces mots: «La galerie Serres fut un point de repère pour le marché des objets d'archéologie durant deux décennies». Reconnu par la profession, «il a beaucoup conseillé les grandes institutions dans leurs achats et apporté son expertise lors de la dispersion des grandes collections d'archéologie», rapporte le commissaire-priseur Lionel Gosset. Il travailla longtemps avec lui et tiendra le marteau chez Christie's, avec un autre proche, François de Ricqlès, directeur de la maison de vente en France.

«Jean-Philippe a hérité de la passion de son père, grand collectionneur par curiosité intellectuelle et par goût des objets d'art rapportés de ses nombreux voyages autour du bassin méditerranéen, poursuit Lionel Gosset.

Une vente hommage: «J'ai recomposé le catalogue tel que je pouvais le faire avec JeanPhilippe à Drouot», confie enfin Lionel Gosset, qui avait réalisé avec lui le catalogue de vente de la collection de son père. L'intérêt de cette vente réside dans le pedigree des objets: ils viennent d'un collectionneur et marchand de grande réputation. C'est une très bonne garantie alors que circulent sur le marché des pièces sans vraie provenance.

ADDITIONAL VIEWS Hellenistic Greek Sculpture (c.323-27 BCE) While classical statues had normally been constructed from a front and a side elevation, so that they presented four distinct principal views, Hellenistic sculptors thought more deeply. Their first solution was to give a spiral twist to the figure, so that from any point of view some important part of it appeared more or less in frontal or profile elevation. Yet, effective as it is, so strong a twist is not easily justified, if one expects the action of a statue to have a logical purpose. Dancing and fighting offer satisfactory reasons, but for some spiralling Hellenistic figures the only excuse is flippant, as in Aphrodite lifting her skirt to contemplate her bottom or the young Satyr who tries to inspect his tail. By the beginning of the second century a more sophisticated formula had been found, by which the spiral is reversed or stopped at the waist. The Venus de Milo is the most famous example.

http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/antiquity/greek-sculpturehellenistic-period.htm

REFERENCE FROM THER SAME PERIOD: APHRODITE, known as the “VENUS DE MILO” Department of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities Hellenistic Art (3rd-1st centuries BC) Musée du Louvre, Paris The discovery of a mutilated masterpiece The Venus de Milo was discovered in 1820 on the island of Melos (Milo in modern Greek) in the south-western Cyclades.

The Marquis de Rivière presented it to Louis XVIII, who donated it to the Louvre the following year. The statue won instant and lasting fame. Essentially two blocks of marble, it is comprised of several parts which were sculpted separately (bust, legs, left arm and foot) then fixed with vertical pegs, a technique which was fairly common in the Greek world (especially in the Cyclades, where this work was produced around 100 BC). The goddess originally wore metal jewelry — bracelet, earrings, and headband — of which only the fixation holes remain. The marble may have been embellished with (now faded) polychromy. The arms were never found.

A mysterious goddess with neither name nor attributes The goddess is shrouded in mystery, her attitude a persistent enigma. The missing pieces of marble and absence of attributes made the restoration and identification of the statue difficult. A whole range of positions have been suggested: leaning against a pillar, resting her elbow on Ares' shoulder, or holding a variety of attributes. According to whether she held a bow or an amphora, she was Artemis or a Danaid. She is popularly thought to represent Aphrodite, because of her halfnakedness and her sensual, feminine curves. She may have held an apple — an allusion to the Judgment of Paris — a crown, a shield, or a mirror in which she admired her reflection.

However she might also be the sea goddess Amphitrite, who was venerated on the island of Milo.

A Hellenistic creation: a blend of classical tradition and innovation The statue has sometimes been thought to be a replica, freely inspired by an original from the late 4th century BC, because of its resemblance to the Aphrodite of Capua (Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples) — a similar style Roman work, copy of a Greek original. The Venus de Milo certainly revives the classical tradition, but would appear to be a classicizing re-creation dating from the late 2nd century BC. The goddess's air of aloofness, the harmony of her face and her impassivity are stamped with the aesthetics of the 5th century BC; the hairstyle and delicate modeling of the flesh evoke the works of 4th-century sculptor Praxiteles. However, the sculpture reflects innovations that appeared during the Hellenistic period, between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC. The spiral composition, the positioning of the figure in three-dimensional space, and the small-breasted, elongated body, are characteristic of this period. The goddess is arrested in time, holding her legs together as the drapery slides over her hips. Her nudity contrasts with the effects of light and shade of the finely detailed drapery. http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/aphrodite-known-venus-de-milo