Images and Statues of Aphrodite - Essay Example

Aphrodite’s Depiction The legend of Aphrodite is almost as old as time itself, having its origins with the ancient Greeks and being carried forward even into the present day. “According to Hesiod, when Kronos (Cronos) had cut off his father’s members, he tossed them into the sea. The immortal flesh eventually spread into a circle of white foam... from this foam, Aphrodite was created. Her name literally means foam-born” (Stewart, 2005). Although she is somewhat the daughter of Ouranos, as it was his phallus from which she grew, she has no associated mother and took several lovers, including Adonis (Cotterell, 1980). As the goddess of love, Aphrodite presided over sexual love, affection between people and other social relationships. According to Guerber (1990), she was not only the goddess of lovers, but the goddess of gardens and gardeners. “The rose, lily, hyacinth, crocus and narcissus were sacred to her; so were the dove, the sparrow, the dolphin and the swan” (Guerber, 1990, p. 90). Because of her very rich heritage, Aphrodite has been the subject of artistic endeavors for as long as she’s existed with several representations being created by the ancients and her image being carried forward well into the Renaissance. Images and statues of Aphrodite and/or Venus have been created since as early as the fifth century BC in Greece and approximately that old in Rome. This statue is known by two different names, reflecting the dual identity of the goddess of love. A marble copy of a fifth century BC Greek cult statue, “Aphrodite Frejus” or “Venus Genetrix” is currently housed at the Louvre museum in Paris, France and demonstrates the ideal form of beauty and feminine graces held by the Greeks in the fashioning of their gods. She is draped elegantly in a clinging robe of fine mesh that suggests a translucent nature as it seems to show more than hide her underlying figure. The way in which it clings to her body further suggests she has just stepped out of the bath, with the material plastering itself to her moist curves, further denoting the idea of sexuality and desire. An exposed breast demonstrates she is a fully formed woman with generous curves and a sufficient degree of body fat providing her limbs with a pleasing roundness of form and solidity, but neither is she overly proportioned or asexually muscular. She extends an apple in her hand as a symbol of her dominance over the garden as well as a symbol of her fruitfulness. Her hair is styled in tight curls around her face while her head is tilted down somewhat in an ambiguous yet seemingly kind expression. A Roman statue created also in the second century BC, the Capitoline Venus demonstrates a much greater sophistication in terms of representing the human side of the goddess. In this statue, Venus appears as a shy young woman about to step into her bath. This both explains why she is nude as well as affords her the modesty and chastity she is sworn to protect as some of the duties of her office while still allowing the artist to work with the female nude that was popular in the arts at that time. Her pose seems to be somewhat crouching into herself, though still contrapposto. Her shoulders are curved inward and her upper body hovers protectively over her lower body. Her arms curve inward to shield her breasts and pubic area modestly, but do not actually touch her body. “Her modesty in covering her breasts with her hand only serves to emphasize them, while her head turns shyly to one side. However, the beauty of her body is impaired by the too large head weighed down by the hair and the common facial features” (Morton, 1990, p. 366). The hair style repeats the coronet of curls around the face that has been seen in earlier statues, but is released in the back in a towering cascade of curled ponytail that falls down to her back. While other statues seen so far have feminine-sized heads and necks, the Capitoline Venus has a neck size disproportionate to her body, throwing off the proportions of her head and reducing her aesthetic qualities. After the collapse of Rome, the world was plunged into the Dark Ages eventually emerging from the Gothic period into the period of the Renaissance between 1300 and 1500. In the intervening years, any art created typically had a very religious theme, focusing almost exclusively on figures from the Bible. With the discovery of some of the classic art and architecture of Rome, there was renewed interest in the deities that had once been important to these people. Venus was reborn in statues and paintings throughout this period. Perhaps one of the most well-known of these resurrections is Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. Although not the first image of Venus during the Renaissance, Botticelli displays Venus in the nude, as she was in the classical poses, in such a way that she is made acceptable to his highly Christianized society in which the only nudes generally permitted were Adam, Eve or the crucified Christ figure. Her pose is not quite as natural as her various poses in Greek or Roman statuary as she is carried across the sea on a giant open clamshell that moves through the waves with the power of the wind, depicted as additional characters to the left of her. The nudity in this painting provides various draperies to hide the more objectionable pubic regions while the women, Venus and the wind, are permitted to leave one breast exposed. For the first time, Venus is provided with long, soft, flowing hair that is unrestrained as it moves on the wind. This flowing hair is necessary to cover Venus modestly until she finally reaches the shore where a woman awaits with appropriate clothing for her. Like the Capitoline Venus, her hand attempting to cover her breasts serves only to bring attention to them. Also like the statuary that had been seen before, Botticelli’s Venus has alabaster skin and a cool, reserved approachability in her facial expression as well as a slender, slightly muscular build. Eventually becoming one and the same goddess, early forms of art demonstrate a distinct difference between the ideal image of woman in Greece versus the ideal image of woman in Rome as shown in the likeness of the goddesses Aphrodite and Venus. While Greece seemed to prefer women who were slightly heavier built and with a certain classic reserve, including some form of drapery upon the figure, Roman statues display a freer form that allowed for some disproportionality as well as more nudity. In addition, Roman women were depicted as being fairly slender, with highly defined muscles and more naturalistic poses. By the time the Renaissance rediscovered her beauty, Venus was transformed into a dizzying series of images that both modestly concealed her more feminine attributes as well as blatantly, challengingly displayed them before again turning her back and coyly shrouding herself with available materials. While many of her primary attributes have remained the same, the means and emphasis used to portray her have changed drastically. Works Cited Cotterell, Arthus. A Dictionary of World Mythology. New York: G.P. Putman’s Sons, 1980, pp. 131-33. Guerber, H.A. The Myths of Greece & Rome. London: Biblo-Moser, 1990. Morton, David Lawrence. Traveler’s Guide to the Great Art Treasures of Europe. Boston: G.K. Hall & Company, 1990. Stewart, Michael. “Aphrodite.” Greek Mythology: From the Iliad to the Fall of the Last Tyrant. (November 14, 2005). June 12, 2009 Read More