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Venus Anadyomene[1] (Greek:Ἀναδυόμενη, "Venus, Rising from the Sea") is one of the iconic representations of the goddessVenus (Aphrodite), made famous in a much-admired painting byApelles, now lost, but described inPliny'sNatural History,[2] with the anecdote that the great Apelles employedCampaspe, a mistress ofAlexander the Great, for his model. According toAthenaeus,[3] the idea of Aphrodite rising from the sea was inspired by the courtesanPhryne, who, during the time of the festivals of theEleusinia andPoseidonia, often swam nude in the sea. Ascallop shell, often found in Venus Anadyomenes, is a symbol of the femalevulva.
The subject never entirely disappeared in Western art, and revived greatly in theItalian Renaissance, with further boosts in the Baroque andRococo, and in late 19th-centuryAcademic painting. At least one central female nude is practically required in the subject, which has contributed to its popularity.
According toGreek mythology,Aphrodite was born as an adult woman from the sea offPaphos inCyprus, which also perpetually renewed hervirginity. A motif of the goddess wringing out her hair is often repeated. The subject was often repeated in Antiquity, a fourth-century sculptural representation from aGallo-Roman villa inAquitania (Louvre) testifying to the motif's continued viability inLate Antiquity.
Apelles' painting was executed for thetemple of Asclepius atKos, from which it was taken to Rome byAugustus in part payment of tribute, and set up in theTemple of Caesar. In the time ofNero, owing to its dilapidated condition, it was replaced by a copy made by the painter Dorotheus.[4] Pliny, listing Apelles' best paintings, noted "[Another of] Venus emerging from the sea, dedicated by the late Augustus of blessed memory in the shrine ofCaesar his [adoptive-]father, which is called 'The Anadyomene', praised in Greek verses like other works, conquered by time but undimmed in fame."[5]
The image of Venus Anadyomene is one of the very few images that survived in Western Europe, essentially unchanged from its classical appearance, from Antiquity into theHigh Middle Ages.Jean Seznec instances[6] two images of Venus among constellations illustrating 14th-century Provençal manuscripts ofMatfre Ermengau of Béziers'Breviari d'amor, in which Venus is represented nude in the sea: "This extraordinary conservatism may perhaps be explained by the fact that the culture of the last pagan centuries remained alive longer in Provence than elsewhere."
Through the desire ofRenaissance artists reading Pliny to emulate Apelles, and if possible, to outdo him, Venus Anadyomene was taken up again in the 15th century: besidesBotticelli's famousThe Birth of Venus (Uffizi Gallery, Florence), another early Venus Anadyomene is thebas-relief byAntonio Lombardo fromWilton House (Victoria and Albert Museum).
Titian'sVenus Anadyomene,c. 1520, formerly a long-term loan by the Duke of Sutherland, was bought by theNational Gallery of Scotland in 2003. It depicts Venus standing in the sea, wringing out her hair. The scallop shell is merely symbolic, as it does not interact with Venus.Giambologna's sculpture is also a single figure wringing out her hair.
The subject was popular with Baroque and Rococo painters, who made up large groups with attendingcherubs, sea-nymphs, sea-horses, and tritons around the goddess; these might also be called aTriumph of Venus, and can be traced back toRaphael'sGalatea (c. 1514). This, rather than the Botticelli, was the dominant influence on paintings of the subject until the late 19th century. Paintings in this vein include those byNicolas Poussin (1635–36, Philadelphia),Sebastiano Ricci (c. 1713, Getty Museum),Pierre-Jacques Cazes,François Boucher (1740, Stockholm, and c. 1743Hermitage Museum). ACornelis de Vos in thePrado has an original and less formal composition.
Rococo sculptures of the subject were modestly draped across the hips, but bolder nudes appealed to male nineteenth-century patrons.Théodore Chassériau executed the subject in 1835; he repeated the hair-wringing gesture in his most famous workThe Toilette of Esther (1841).Ingres'Venus Anadyomene, completed after many years in 1848, is one of the painter's most celebrated works (Musée Condé).
Alexandre Cabanel'sThe Birth of Venus, reworking the then recently discovered Pompeii fresco, was shown at theParis Salon in 1863, and bought byNapoleon III for his own personal collection. Venus lies naked on the waves ambiguously, with putti flying above her.Robert Rosenblum's comment on Cabanel's painting is that "This Venus hovers somewhere between an ancient deity and a modern dream... and the ambiguity of her eyes, that seem to be closed but that a close look reveals that she is awake... A nude who could be asleep or awake is specially formidable for a male viewer".[7]
Such a highly conventionalized theme, with undertones oferoticism justified by its mythological context, was ripe formodernistdeconstruction; in 1870Arthur Rimbaud evoked the image of a portlyClara Venus ("famous Venus") with all-too-human blemishes (déficits) in a sardonic poem that introducedcellulite to high literature:La graisse sous la peau paraît en feuilles plates ("the fat under the skin appears in slabs").
The Birth of Venus, byWilliam-Adolphe Bouguereau (1879), reimagines the composition of the Raphael and Poussin tradition, reflecting the subject's continuing popularity among theacademic painters of the late 19th century. It was shown at the Paris Salon of 1879, and was bought for theMusée du Luxembourg. Venus' nude figure takes up the center of the composition, with many admirers gathered around her.
Pablo Picasso recast the image of Venus Anadyomene in the central figure of his seminal paintingLes Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), a modernist deconstruction of the icon, and one of the foundational artworks ofCubism.
Venus Anadyomene offered a natural subject for a fountain: theNational Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., has a lifesize bronze plumbed so that water drips from Venus's hair, modelled by a close follower ofGiambologna, late sixteenth century.
In 1793,Thomas Stothard created an etching inspired by Raphael or by Baroque compositions for the third edition of Bryan Edwards'The History, civil and Commercial of the British colonies in theWest Indies.The voyage of the Sable Venus, from Angola to the West Indies depicts an African woman in the role of Venus. Attended by eight cherubs fanning her with feathers either ofostrich or ofpeacock, she holds the reins of a pair ofdolphins who draw onward to the Americas the half-shell on which she stands.[8] Cupid is displayed in the scene taking aim at a depiction of Neptune on the left waving a British flag. To the right is shownTriton looking back to the Sable Venus and embracing one of the dolphins. The figure is one of feminine strength: muscular, lean and adorned by a jewel necklace.[9]
In 1913 the British archaeologistJohn Myres was on the coast near Paphos in winter. Watching the sea, he saw the wind blow two breakers together.[clarification needed]
When the angle of impact is about 90°, ‘the “break” is both concentrated within a small width of swell, and very violent, so that the breaker shoots up in a column like a water-spout, 10–15 feet high, and falls back in an outward cascade of foam which may be carried some feet to leeward by the wind. It looks exactly like a human figure literally “rising from the sea” and spreading long hair and dripping arms.[10]
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One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Anadyomene".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 907.
