When they found the statue of Venus de Milo. Venus de Milo (Aphrodite, Venus de Milo)

The subject of bloody battles, mass intrigues and numerous disputes, Venus de Milo is full of secrets. We invite you to get acquainted with some of them.

The statue, depicting the Greek goddess of love and beauty, is nevertheless not named by a Greek name. Venus is the deity of Roman mythology, which is the exact analogue of the Greek Aphrodite. Thus, the alternative name for the statue is Aphrodite de Milo.

The statue did not receive part of its name when it was created. In particular, the Milos sculpture was named in 1820 in honor of the place of its discovery - the Greek island of Milos.

The time of the creation of Venus de Milo (130-100 BC, Hellenistic period) became known for certain thanks to a pedestal discovered along with a marble masterpiece, on which, in addition, it was indicated that the author of the work was Alexander from Antioch. Why was it? Yes, because immediately after the discovery, the pedestal disappeared somewhere.

As it turned out later, the disappearance of the pedestal was far from an accident. It was deliberately hidden in order to pass off the sculpture as a creation of the classical period of Greece (510-323 BC), whose works are valued much higher than the Hellenistic one. In parallel with this, the authorship was attributed to Praxiteles, the founding father of the direction in sculpture, in which Venus de Milo was made. Although the trick was subsequently revealed, the pedestal was still not found, and therefore Alexander of Antioch is considered the most likely author of the work, but by no means authentic.

Some experts believe that the sculpture depicts not Venus / Aphrodite, but Amphitrite - the daughter of the mythological sea god Nereus and the wife of the subsequent ruler of the sea kingdom of Poseidon. This version is supported by the fact that Amphitrite was especially revered by the inhabitants of the island of Milos. At the same time, there is also an assumption that the goddess of victory Nike is depicted on the statue. The hands of the statue, or rather the objects in them, could resolve this dispute. For example, a spear would indicate that it was Nike, and an apple would be the final argument in favor of Aphrodite (before the start of the Trojan War, Paris presented it to the goddess of love and beauty). However, the hands of the statue, unfortunately, have not been preserved.

It is widely known that, found in 1820 by the Greek peasant Yorgos Kentrotas, together with the French sailor Olivier Voutier, the Venus de Milo was illegally exported to France, where in 1821 it entered the Louvre exposition. However, not everyone knows that the statue was originally sent to Paris as a gift from the French ambassador, the Marquis de Rivière, to King Louis XVIII, who later gave it to the Louvre.

Many masterpieces of antiquity survive to this day in imperfect condition, mainly due to the ruthless influence of time, but the lack of hands in Venus de Milo is the result of banal human nature. At the time of the discovery of the statue, it consisted of all parts of the body, but as a result of a bloody skirmish between the French and the Turks for the right to possess this treasure of antiquity, Aphrodite lost her hands. In this form, she was taken to Paris.

With its appearance in the cultural life of Paris, the Venus de Milo has become a kind of symbol of the national pride of the French. The fact is that in 1815 the Louvre had to return to the Italians the statue of Venus Medicea, which Napoleon Bonaparte took out of Italy during his conquests. The appearance of the Venus de Milo in 1820 not only made up for the loss, but was also purposefully declared a more valuable exhibit. The trick was a success - the novelty immediately attracted the attention of connoisseurs and artists, as well as the general public.

Despite its uniqueness, the Venus de Milo also had detractors. The most famous opponent of the idea that the statue is the personification of beauty was the famous impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

Along with the statue of the Nike of Samothrace and Michelangelo's Slave cycle, the Venus de Milo was among the selected masterpieces of art that were smuggled out of occupied Paris during World War II and buried in the suburbs of the French capital.

At one time, Venus de Milo lost not only her hands, but also her jewelry. In particular, at first the statue was exhibited decorated with a bracelet, earrings and other expensive jewelry. Although these jewels are long gone, you can still see the holes on the marble, designed to attach jewelry.

Today we see the statue is not at all the same as it was seen in antiquity, and it's not just the lack of hands. The original color of Venus de Milo, like any other ancient marble statue, is not white. The Greeks of antiquity traditionally processed marble sculptures with various paints, partially changing the appearance of the sculpture. Today, studies show that there is no trace of the ancient paint of the statue.

Despite the fact that Venus de Milo is considered by many to be a model of female beauty, her height is just over 2 meters, which exceeds the growth of the vast majority of people on our planet. Perhaps this is a hint at an ideal that only a few can achieve.

Some art historians tend to believe that the sculpture of Venus de Milo is a replica of the Roman statue of Aphrodite of Capua (created 170 years before the creation of Alexandros of Antioch), which, in turn, is also a copy of the original Greek statue.

On the one hand, the missing hand of Venus de Milo is the subject of bitter regret, on the other hand, it is an inexhaustible source for suggestions about how the hands of the statue were located and, most importantly, what could be in them. This issue has repeatedly become and to this day becomes the topic of numerous discussions and scientific papers.

By the way, we want to remind you that there is a possibility that soon the 200-year stay of Venus de Milo in the Louvre will come to an end. At least the administration of the island of Milos announced its intention.

The vast majority of people know Venus de Milo, first of all, as a statue without hands. And this, as many believe, is its main mystery. But in fact, much more mysteries and secrets are connected with this statue.

1. The name "Venus de Milo" is misleading.

It is widely believed that this statue depicts the Greek goddess of love and beauty. But the Greeks called this goddess Aphrodite, and Venus is a Roman name.

2. The statue was named after the place where it was discovered.

On April 8, 1820, a farmer named Yorgos Kentrotas came across a statue in the ruins of an ancient city on the island of Milos.

3. The creation of the statue is attributed to Alexandros of Antioch

The Hellenistic sculptor Alexandros is believed to have carved this masterpiece in stone between 130 and 100 BC. Initially, the statue was found with a pedestal-slab on which it stood. There, an inscription about the creator was found. Subsequently, the pedestal mysteriously disappeared.

4. The statue may not represent Venus

Some believe that the sculpture depicts not Aphrodite / Venus, but Amphitrite - a sea goddess who was especially revered on Milos. Still others even suggest that this is a statue of the goddess of victory, Victoria. There are also disputes about what the statue originally had in its hands. There are different versions that it could be a spear or a spinning wheel with threads. There is even a version that it was an apple, and the statue is Aphrodite, who holds in her hands the award given to her by Paris, as the most beautiful goddess.

5. The sculpture was presented to the king of France

Kentrotas originally found this statue with the French sailor Olivier Voutier. Having changed several owners while trying to take it out of the country, the statue eventually came to the French ambassador in Istanbul, the Marquis de Riviere. It was the Marquis who presented Venus to the French King Louis XVIII, who, in turn, gave the statue to the Louvre, where it is located to this day.

6. The statue lost its arms due to the French

Kentrotas found hand fragments when he discovered the statue in ruins, but after they were reconstructed, they were deemed too "rough and inelegant". Modern art historians believe that this does not mean at all that the hands did not belong to Venus, but rather they were damaged over the centuries. Both the arms and the original plinth were lost when the statue was transported to Paris in 1820.

7. The original pedestal was removed purposefully

Art historians of the 19th century decided that the statue of Venus was the work of the Greek sculptor Praxiteles (it was very similar to his statues). This classified the statue as belonging to the classical era (480-323 BC), whose creations were valued much more than the sculptures of the Hellenistic period. To support this version, even at the cost of misinformation, the plinth was removed before the sculpture was presented to the king.

8. Venus de Milo - the object of national pride of the French

During his conquests, Napoleon Bonaparte brought one of the finest examples of Greek sculpture, the Medici Venus, from Italy. In 1815, the French government returned this statue to Italy. And in 1820, France gladly took the opportunity to fill an empty space in the main French museum. Venus de Milo became more popular than the Venus de Medici, which was also represented in the Louvre.

9 Renoir Wasn't Impressed With Sculpture

Perhaps the most famous of the ill-wishers of Venus de Milo, the famous impressionist artist stated that the sculpture is very far from depicting female beauty.

10 Venus Was Hid During World War II

By the autumn of 1939, with the threat of war looming over Paris, the Venus de Milo, along with some other priceless artefacts such as the Nike of Samothrace and Michelangelo, had been removed from the Louvre for safekeeping in various castles in the French countryside.

11. Venus got robbed

Venus lacks not only hands. She was originally adorned with jewelry, including bracelets, earrings, and a tiara. These decorations disappeared a long time ago, but holes for fastening remained in the marble.

12. Venus has lost color

Although modern art connoisseurs are accustomed to consider Greek statues white, marble sculptures were often painted in various colors. However, no trace of the original coloring survives today.

13. The statue is taller than most people

The height of Venus de Milo is 2.02 m.

14. Sculpture can be a copy

Art historians note that Venus de Milo bears a striking resemblance to Aphrodite or Venus of Capu, which is a Roman copy of a Greek original statue. Since the creation of the Venus of Capua, at least 170 years have passed before Alexandros created the Venus of Milos. Some art historians believe that both statues are actually copies of an older source.

15. Imperfect sculpture as a source of inspiration

The missing hands of the Venus de Milo are much more than a source of numerous lectures, discussions and essays by art critics. Their absence also led to innumerable fantasies and theories as to how the hands might have been positioned and what might have been in them.

What to look at: Venus (or in Greek mythology, Aphrodite), the goddess of love and beauty, is personified by many statues, but how the image embodied in them differs. And the most famous of them is the world-famous Venus de Milo, staged in the Department of Antique Art in the Louvre. One of the "three pillars of the Louvre", which every visitor to the Louvre considers it his duty to see (the other two are Nike of Samothrace and Mona Lisa).

It is believed that its creator is the sculptor Agesander or Alexandros of Antioch (the inscription is illegible). Formerly attributed to Praxiteles. The sculpture is a type of Aphrodite of Cnidus (Venus pudica, Venus bashful): a goddess holding a fallen robe with her hand (for the first time, a sculpture of this type was carved around 350 BC by Praxiteles). It was this Venus that gave the world modern standards of beauty: 90-60-90, because its proportions are 86x69x93 with a height of 164 cm.

Researchers and art historians have long attributed the Venus de Milo to that period of Greek art, which is called "late classics". The majesty of the posture of the goddess, the smoothness of divine contours, the calmness of her face - all this makes her related to the works of the 4th century BC. But some methods of processing marble forced scientists to move the date of execution of this masterpiece two centuries ahead.

Path to the Louvre.
The statue was accidentally discovered on the island of Milos in 1820 by a Greek peasant. She probably spent at least two millennia in underground captivity. The one who placed her there obviously wanted to save her from the impending disaster. (By the way, this was not the last attempt to save the statue. In 1870, fifty years after the Venus de Milo was found, it was again hidden in a dungeon - in the cellar of the Paris police prefecture. The Germans fired on Paris and were close to the capital. Prefecture soon burned down, but fortunately the statue remained intact. Here she was seen by a young French officer, Dumont-Durville. An educated officer, a member of the expedition to the islands of Greece, he immediately appreciated the well-preserved masterpiece. Undoubtedly, it was the Greek goddess of love and beauty Venus. Moreover, she was holding an apple in her hand, handed to her by Paris in the well-known dispute between the three goddesses.

The peasant asked a huge price for his find, but Dumont-D'Urville did not have such money. However, he understood the true value of the sculpture and persuaded the peasant not to sell Venus until he got the right amount. The officer had to go to the French consul in Constantinople to persuade him to buy a statue for the French museum.

But, returning to Milos, Dumont-D'Urville learned that the statue had already been sold to some Turkish official and even packed in a box. For a huge bribe, Dumont-D'Urville bought Venus again. She was urgently placed on a stretcher and taken to the port where a French ship was moored. Literally immediately, the Turks missed the loss. In the ensuing scuffle, Venus passed several times from the French to the Turks and back. During that fight, the marble hands of the goddess suffered. The ship with the statue was forced to urgently sail, and the hands of Venus were left in the port. They have not been found to this day.

But even the ancient goddess, deprived of her arms and covered with gaps, enchants everyone with her perfection so much that you simply don’t notice these flaws and damage. Slightly tilted her small head on a slender neck, one shoulder rose and the other fell, the camp flexed flexibly. The softness and tenderness of the skin of Venus is set off by the drapery that has slipped onto her hips, and now it is impossible to take your eyes off the sculpture, which has conquered the world for almost two centuries with its enchanting beauty and femininity.

Hands of Venus.
When the Venus de Milo was first exhibited in the Louvre, the famous writer Chateaubriand said: "Greece has never given us better evidence of her greatness!" And almost immediately, assumptions began to pour in about the original position of the hands of the ancient goddess.

At the end of 1896, in the French newspaper "Illustration", a message was printed by a certain Marquis de Troghof that his father, who served as an officer in the Mediterranean, saw the statue intact, and that the goddess was holding an apple in her hands.

If she was holding the apple of Paris, how were her hands positioned? True, later the statements of the Marquis were refuted by the French scientist S. Reinac. However, de Troghoff's article and S. Reinac's refutation aroused even more interest in the antique statue. The German professor Hass, for example, claimed that the ancient Greek sculptor depicted the goddess after bathing, when she was about to anoint her body with juice. The Swedish scientist G. Saloman suggested that Venus is the embodiment of voluptuousness: the goddess, using all her charm, leads someone astray.

Or maybe it was a whole sculptural composition, from which only Venus has come down to us? Many researchers supported the version of the Swedish scientist, in particular, Cartmer de Kinsey suggested that Venus was depicted in a group with the god of war Mars. "Because Venus has he wrote, judging by the position of the shoulder, the hand was raised, she probably rested this hand on the shoulder of Mars; put her right hand into his left hand.". In the 19th century, they tried to reconstruct and restore the original appearance of the beautiful Venus, there were even attempts to attach wings to it. But the "completed" sculpture was losing its mystical charm, so it was decided not to restore the statue.

The Louvre really knows how to show masterpieces. Thus, the statue of Venus de Milo is placed in the middle of a small hall, and in front of it stretches a long suite of rooms in which none of the exhibits is placed in the middle. Because of this, as soon as the viewer enters the antique department, he immediately sees only Venus - a low sculpture that appears like a white ghost against a foggy background of gray walls ...

Venus received a regional "surname" by the name of the island on which she was found in 1820 by a French sailor. Milos, today a territory of Greece, at that time was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire.

History of Venus de Milo

A Frenchman, accompanied by a Greek guide, found a beautiful statue - generally well preserved, but divided in half. The Turkish authorities, after exhausting bargaining, nevertheless allowed the statue to be removed from the island, but later, realizing what value they had lost, they staged a demonstrative punishment for the Greeks who participated in the search and transportation. In the process of the latter, the hands were just lost. In France, Venus was presented to Louis XVIII and soon transferred to the Louvre, where it remains to this day.

Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt at the Louvre. (wikipedia.org)

On the pedestal, which was found along with the sculpture and then lost, it is indicated that the statue was made by Alexander, son of Menides, a citizen of Antioch on Meander. And it happened around 130 BC.

The statue was sculpted in pieces, which were then put together. A similar technique was popular in the Cyclades. Judging by the remaining mounting holes, Venus was wearing bracelets, earrings and a headband, while the marble was painted. For its time, the sculpture is unique in the graceful curve of the body and the skillfully executed drapery of the falling fabric.

3D reconstruction of the statue. Source: wikipedia.org

It is generally accepted that the half-naked goddess personifies Aphrodite (in the Roman tradition, Venus), but the lack of hands in which she could hold the attributes that characterize her gives rise to numerous hypotheses.

Statue of Venus de Milo: versions

There is an assumption that Venus held an apple. There are hypotheses that this is the goddess of the sea, Amphitrite, who was extremely revered on Milos. She could be paired with someone, one of her hands resting on the shoulder of a neighboring sculpture. She could hold a bow or an amphora - the attributes of Artemis.

There is also a hypothesis that the sculpture was not a goddess, but a hetero - one of those that were often depicted on vases.

Image of a statue of Praxiteles. (wikipedia.org)

For its beautiful eyes and charming curves, the sculpture is still considered the goddess of love and belongs to the so-called Knidos type. Around 350 B.C. e. Praxiteles fashioned a naked goddess, who held the fallen clothes. The statue has not survived, but the image has been reproduced by numerous followers in sculpture and painting.

Greek sculpture had a tremendous impact on subsequent eras. In many ways, the ideals of the beauty of the body were first embodied in marble by ancient masters and, with slight variations, have survived to this day. The period of Hellenism, to which the Venus de Milo belongs, was a time of change: social institutions traditional for classical Greece became obsolete, new ones arose. Changed foundations and norms, worldview, attitude to art.

Aesthetics was formed under the influence of the cultures of those peoples that were part of the empire as it expanded. The influence of the East is becoming more noticeable with its attention to decor, details, sensuality and emotionality, which comes through even in marble. Sculpture was no longer the embodiment of the static position of an ideal body, but demonstrated the passions that overwhelmed the heroes, represented multi-figured genre scenes, which was later used by painters.

One of the most famous examples of ancient Greek sculpture is the marble statue of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty. The sculpture was created in the Hellenistic period, between 130 and 100 BC, but, unfortunately, by the time it was “discovered” in modern history, it was already devoid of hands. Depicted slightly larger than the life size of a man, this work is attributed to Alexandros of Antioch, as evidenced by the now lost inscription on the plinth. The graceful figure of the goddess has fascinated art lovers since its discovery in 1820. The famous sculpture is now on public display in the Louvre collection.

Venus de Milo was discovered on the Greek island of Melos, buried in the ancient ruins of the city of Melos (sometimes Milos).

Characteristics and analysis

The statue is made of Parian marble and has a height of about two meters without a pedestal. The statue is believed to represent the goddess Aphrodite. Venus is her Roman counterpart. Unfortunately, the arms of the sculpture and the original plinth have been lost. This is partly due to the fact that initially, when collecting the surviving fragments of the sculpture, the hands were not attributed to her, as they had a more “rough” appearance. Today, however, experts are sure that despite the difference in decoration, the lost fragments belonged to Venus.

It is believed that initially the statue (like other works of ancient Greek sculpture) was painted with colored pigments, which gave it a realistic appearance, and was also decorated with bracelets, earrings and a wreath.

The Venus de Milo showcases the technical and creative innovations of the period known as Hellenism. The contrast between the smooth naked skin of the heroine and the voluminous texture of the drapery is masterfully emphasized. The sculpture is filled with erotic tension through the drapery, which is about to slip off. These stylistic features give an idea of the period of creation of the sculpture. Overall, the work can be seen as a subtle blend of early and late styles and methods of ancient Greek sculpture.

Unfading beauty

During the 19th century, the Venus de Milo was praised by art critics and experts who gave the sculpture the title of the standard of female beauty.

Updated: September 16, 2017 by: Gleb