| Aphrodite of Knidos | |
|---|---|
| Venus pudica | |
 The Ludovisi Knidian Aphrodite, Roman marble copy (torso and thighs) with restored head, arms, legs and drapery support | |
| Artist | Praxiteles |
| Year | 4th century BC |
TheAphrodite of Knidos (or Cnidus) was anAncient Greek sculpture of the goddessAphrodite created byPraxiteles ofAthens around the 4th century BC. It was one of the first life-sizedrepresentations of the nude female form in Greek history, displaying an alternative idea to maleheroic nudity. Praxiteles' Aphrodite was shown nude, reaching for a bath towel while covering herpubis, which, in turn leaves her breasts exposed. Up until this point, Greek sculpture had been dominated by male nude figures. The original Greek sculpture is no longer in existence; however, many Roman copies survive of this influential work of art. Variants of theVenusPudica (suggesting an action to cover the breasts) are theVenus de' Medici and theCapitoline Venus.
TheAphrodite of Knidos was a marble carving of the goddess Aphrodite by the sculptorPraxiteles, which was bought by the people ofKnidos in the middle of the 4th century BC.[1] The earliest text to mention the Aphrodite isPliny the Elder'sNatural History,[2] which reports that Praxiteles carved two sculptures of Aphrodite, one clothed and one nude; the clothed one was bought by the people ofKos and the Knidians bought the nude one.[3] The statue was set up as thecult statue for theTemple of Aphrodite at Knidos. It depicted the goddess Aphrodite as she prepared for theritual bath that restored her purity, discarding her drapery with one hand, while modestly shielding herself with the other. The placement of her hands obscures her pubic area, while simultaneously drawing attention to her exposed upper body. The statue is famed for its beauty, and is designed to be appreciated from every angle.
Because the various copies show different body shapes, poses and accessories, the original can only be described in general terms. It depicted a nude woman, the body twisting in acontrapposto position, with its weight on the right foot. Most copies show Aphrodite covering her pubic area with her right hand, while the left holds drapery which, along with a vase, helps support the figure.[4] In most copies of the sculpture, it is ambiguous whether the Aphrodite is picking up or putting down the drapery.[5] Almost all copies show the head of the sculpture turning to the left.[6] In most copies, the Aphrodite is adorned with some kind of jewellery; on large copies this usually includes an armband on the left arm.[7]
The female nude appeared nearly three centuries after the earliest nude male counterparts in Greek sculpture, thekouros; the femalekore figures were clothed. Previously nudity was a heroic uniform assigned only to men. When making the Aphrodite of Knidos, Spivey argues that her iconography can be attributed to Praxiteles creating the statue for the intent of being viewed by male onlookers.[8] Overwhelming evidence from the ancient sources suggests that the Knidian sculpture evoked male responses of sexuality upon viewing the statue.[8] The Aphrodite of Knidos established acanon for the proportions of the female nude.[9][better source needed]
According to Athenaeus and the late-antique rhetoricianChoricius of Gaza, Praxiteles used thecourtesanPhryne as the model for the Aphrodite, thoughClement of Alexandria instead names the model as Cratina.[10] The statue became so widely known and copied that in a humorous anecdote the goddess Aphrodite herself came to Knidos to see it. A lyricepigram ofAntipater of Sidon[11] places a hypothetical question on the lips of the goddess herself:
A similar epigram is attributed to Plato:
When Cypris saw Cypris at Cnidus, "Alas!" said she; "where did Praxiteles see me naked?"
According to an epigram from Roman poetAusonius, Praxiteles never saw what he was not meant to see, but instead sculpted Aphrodite asAres would have wanted.[13]
TThe original Aphrodite of Knidos is now lost. It was taken to Constantinople in the fourth century AD,[14] and destroyed, either deliberately[15] or in the fire that destroyed thePalace of Lausos in 476.[16] It is known through its many surviving copies – Kristen Seaman has catalogued 192 surviving ancient copies, making the statue perhaps the most-copied sculpture from antiquity.[17] In his 1933 monograph on the Aphrodite, Christian Blinkenberg argued that theColonna Venus, in theVatican's Pio-Clementine Museum, is the most accurate surviving copy; this view is still widely, though not universally, accepted.[18]
The temple of Aphrodite in Knidos where the statue was displayed is described by two ancient sources,Pliny the Elder in hisNatural History andPseudo-Lucian in hisAmores.[19] According to Pliny, the sculpture was housed in a small building, open on all sides – by which he likely meant amonopteros, acolonnade with a roof but no walls.[20] In the description given by Pseudo-Lucian, on the other hand, the building which housed the statue is described as having two doors, and suggests a more confined space than Pliny's description.[21] In excavations at Knidos between 1969 and 1972,Iris Love discovered the remains of a round building which she identified as the temple of Aphrodite. This included a stone inscribed with the letters PRAX, which Love suggested was a statue base for the Knidian Aphrodite.[22]
The statue became a tourist attraction in spite of being acult image, and a patron of the Knidians.Nicomedes I of Bithynia offered to pay off the enormous debts of the city of Knidos in exchange for the statue, but the Knidians rejected his offer. The statue would have beenpolychromed,[23] and was so lifelike that it even aroused men sexually, as witnessed by the tradition that a young man broke into the temple at night and attempted to copulate with the statue, leaving a stain on it. An attendant priestess told visitors that upon being discovered, he was so ashamed that he hurled himself over a cliff near the edge of the temple.[24] This story is recorded in the dialogueErotes (section 15), traditionally attributed toLucian of Samosata.[25]
The Knidian Aphrodite has not survived. Possibly the statue was removed toConstantinople (modernIstanbul), where it was housed in thePalace of Lausus; in 475, the palace burned and the statue was lost. It was one of the most widely copied statues in the ancient world, so a general idea of the appearance of the statue can be gleaned from the descriptions and replicas that have survived to the modern day. For a time in 1969, the archaeologistIris Love thought she had found the only surviving fragments of the original statue, which are now in storage at theBritish Museum. The prevailing opinion of archaeologists is that the fragment in question is not of theKnidia, but of a different statue.
As well as more or less faithful copies, the Aphrodite of Knidos also influenced various variations, which include:
Media related toAphrodite of Knidos at Wikimedia Commons| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
_-_Venere_Urania_(Firenze)_ca._1860.jpg){kind=link}