Statuette of Venus

Katharine A. Raff

However, unlike the iconic fashion toy, Venus’s bodily proportions and relaxed stance convey a female physique that could actually exist in reality. Wearing nothing but the diadem, or crown, atop her head, she stands fully nude, her weight on her left leg and her right leg gently bent at the knee. She reaches upward with her right hand as if to adjust a strand of hair in her elegant updo.

Frontal view of a bronze sculpture of nude woman on narrow pedestal, her hand raised. One foot steps forward. She looks to the ground. — Statuette of Venus, about 2nd century

Roman. Katherine K. Adler Memorial Endowment Fund; Cynthia and Terry E. Perucca Fund

Venus, the Roman equivalent to the Greek goddess Aphrodite, was one of the most prominent and widely worshiped deities in the Roman world. While she is best known to contemporary audiences for her dominion over love, beauty, and sexuality, she also held sway over the realms of fertility and maternity and was viewed as the mother of the Roman people, serving as their mythical ancestor. In these regards, Venus was of particular importance to women—especially married women, whose primary role was to produce children and ensure the continuation of Roman society.

Given the wide-ranging importance of Venus, it follows that she was among the most frequently depicted deities in the Roman world—appearing in scales large and small, fashioned of materials humble and grand. Here at the Art Institute, our Roman collection includes a large-scale marble representation of Venus and another of Aphrodite, both currently on display in the Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art.

Visions of a Goddess

A fragment of a marble sculpture beginning at the hips and ending below the knee. The female figure wears a thin, draping fabric showing the outline of the body. — Fragment of a Statue of Venus, 1st-2nd century

Ancient Roman
This fragmentary statue of Venus shows the goddess wearing clingy, almost wet drapery, a garment associated with her role as genetrix, or mother.

White and beige stone statue of a female nude standing in contrapposto position, with weight on the right leg. The head of the statue is missing. The left arm has been broken off just past the shoulder, and the left hand is also absent. — Statue of the Aphrodite of Knidos, 2nd century

Ancient Roman
In this Roman version of an earlier Greek statuary type known as the Aphrodite of Knidos, the goddess’s right hand is placed over her genitalia, emphasizing her power over sexuality and fertility. Inspired by this historic type, the bronze statuette of Venus shares a similar stance.

Few Romans were able to afford costly, large-scale marble sculptures like these. Rather, the majority of them purchased much smaller images of their deities in more affordable materials, like terracotta and bronze. These statuettes were not merely decorative objects; they played a key role in private religious practices as part of household shrines honoring the gods and deceased family members. All levels of Roman society had such shrines in their homes, and so the quality of these statuettes can vary significantly. This particular Venus, a superb example of its type, would nonetheless have been affordable to a patron of moderate means given its scale and material.

Centuries after its original manufacture and use, the 19th-century French industrialist, politician, and photographer Louis de Clercq, who traveled widely in the Middle East and amassed an enormous number of ancient Mediterranean antiquities, acquired this statuette. His collection was published in eight volumes from 1901 to 1912—no small task at the time—and while its illustrations are not comprehensive, this statuette appears in the 1905 volume on De Clercq’s collection of bronzes.

Page from a catalogue with four images in a grid of different nude, female sculptures. — This page from volume 3 of Louis de Clercq’s collection catalogue shows the Art Institute’s recently acquired Statuette of Venus at lower left.

The Getty Research Institute

This latest acquisition enhances our ability to expand the stories we can tell in our galleries, particularly about the types of artworks consumed by the broader, non-elite population of the Roman world and the prominent role Venus held for women. I invite you to see this lovely object for yourself if you’ve not encountered it already. You’ll find it prominently on display in Gallery 150, the space that connects the Modern Wing to the Rice Building. It’s located near the Roman marble Venus and a much older marble female figure created nearly 3,000 years earlier in the Cycladic Islands off mainland Greece that may depict a pregnant female.

A light-colored, highly polished stone figure, faceless but with a prominent nose, crossed arms, and a slim, rectangular built. A portion of its legs at bottom have broken off and are missing. — Statuette of a Female Figure, Early Bronze Age, 2600–2400 BCE

Ancient Greek

Together in the gallery, these three sculptures enjoy a visual conversation with one another, reflecting ancient emphasis on the female form and its powerful associations with fertility and regeneration.

—Katharine A. Raff, Elizabeth McIlvaine Associate Curator, Arts of the Ancient Mediterranean and Byzantium