Bust of Aphrodite from the theater at Arles
- Title:
- Bust of Aphrodite from the theater at Arles
- Collection:
- Cornell Cast Collection
- Creator:
- Unknown
- Photographer:
- Mericle, Danielle
- Date:
- ca. 1890-1900
1st or 2nd c. CE (Roman copy)
late 5th c. BCE (Greek original)
- Site:
- Theater, Arles, France (discovery site, 1823) (original)
- Location:
- Goldwin Smith Hall (Room 120), Cornell University
Theater, Arles, France (discovery site, 1823) (original) - ID Number:
- CCC_0707
- Accession Number:
- probably Sage no. 208
697 - File Name:
- CCC_0707.tif
- Original Measurements:
- 52 (H) x 45 (W) cm
- Culture:
- Roman, after Greek
- Style/Period:
- Roman Imperial, after Greek Classical
- Work Type:
- casts (sculpture)
- Materials/Techniques:
- plaster cast (sculpture)
marble sculpture in the round (original) - Subject:
- Aphrodite (Greek deity)
- Image View Type:
- overall
- Image View Description:
- from front
- Measurement:
- 66.5 (with pedestal) x 53.5 (without pedestal) x ca. 51 x ca. 16 (centimeters, height x height x width x diameter)
- Description:
- This is a cast of the bust of Aphrodite discovered in the ancient theater at Arles, France in 1823. The goddess's face is round with a fleshy chin. She tilts her head very vaguely to her left and looks serenely ahead with thick-lidded, almond-shaped eyes. She has a long, straight nose and full, parted lips.The nose of the original is missing
the nose here is restored. Her wavy locks are well-articulated, parted at the middle, banded towards the front of the head, twisted along the sides, and gathered into a chignon at the back of the head. Aphrodite holds her neck straight. The bust includes the nude left shoulder and follows the angle of the original. The original is fitted to be slotted into the body of the work probably, as Carrier suggests following others, a clothed body where the garment has slipped to expose the left shoulder (perhaps Berlin Antikensammlung SK 1459 or similar). Many scholars believe the original work reproduced in this copy dates to the late fifth or early fourth century, while a minority opinion sees in it a pre-Knidian work of Praxiteles. - Notes:
- Items in the Cornell Cast Collection are meant for inventory and reference purposes. Metadata may not be complete in all cases.
no. 92-00-405 - Bibliography:
- Cécile Carrier, "Sculptures augustéennes du théâtre d'Arles," Revue archéologique de Narbonnaise 38 (2005), 365-396, specifically 374-377
- Repository:
- Cornell University (current)
Arles, France, Musée départemental Arles antique (original) - Collecting Program:
- Cornell Collections of Antiquities
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- The images in the Cornell Collection of Antiquities: Casts are protected by copyright, and the copyright holders are their creators, generally Cornell University Library, Annetta Alexandridis, and Verity Platt. This collection of plaster casts owned by Cornell University was photographed by Cornell University Library, Alexandridis, Platt, and Andreya L. Mihaloew from 2010-2015, with funding from a Digital Collections in Arts and Sciences Grant to Annetta Alexandridis. Cornell is providing access to the materials for research and personal use. The written permission of any copyright and other rights holders is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use that extends beyond what is authorized by fair use and other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. Please contact Annetta Alexandridis and Verity Platt for more information about this collection, or to request permission to use these images.