Venus Kallipygos
Encyclopedia
The Venus Kallipygos or Aphrodite Kallipygos , also known as the Callipygian Venus, all literally meaning "Venus (or Aphrodite) of the beautiful buttocks", is an Ancient Roman
marble
statue, thought to be a copy of an older Greek
original. In an example of anasyrma
, it depicts a partially draped woman, raising her light peplos
to uncover her hips and buttocks, and looking back and down over her shoulder, perhaps to evaluate them. The subject is conventionally identified as Venus
(Aphrodite
), though it may equally be a portrait of a mortal woman.
The statue dates to the late 1st century BC. The lost original on which it is based is thought to have been bronze
, and to have been executed around 300 BC, towards the beginning of the Hellenistic era. Its provenance
is unknown, but it was rediscovered, missing its head, in the early modern era. The head was restored, first in the 16th century and again in the 18th century (in which case the sculptor followed the earlier restoration fairly closely); the restored head was made to look over the shoulder, drawing further attention to the statue's bare buttocks and thereby contributing to its popularity. In the 17th and 18th centuries the statue was identified as Venus and associated with a temple to Aphrodite Kallipygos at Syracuse, discussed by Athenaeus
in his Deipnosophists. The statue was copied a number of times, including by Jean-Jacques Clérion
and François Barois
.
The Venus Kallipygos as we have it is a Roman
work in marble
, dating to the late 1st century BC. It is considered to be a copy or "paraphrase" of an older Greek
statue, probably bronze
. This lost original is thought to have been created around 300 BC, near the inception of the Hellenistic era. Its sculptor and provenance
are unknown. It was rediscovered, missing its head, in Rome
by at least the 16th century. It is sometimes said to have been found in the ruins of Emperor Nero
's Domus Aurea
, though this is unlikely as fragments uncovered there contained no evidence of high-quality artworks such as the Venus.
The missing head was reconstructed in the 16th century; a more thorough reconstruction was undertaken by Carlo Albacini
in the late 18th century. The restorers decided to have the figure look over her shoulder at her own buttocks, a choice that gave the Venus its distinctive pose and had a significant effect on later interpretations of the work. The statue was acquired by the Farnese family and was in the Palazzo Farnese by 1594; it may be the draped Venus described as being in the palace by visitors earlier that century. In the 17th century it is known to have been kept in the palace's Sala dei Filosophi, where it stood surrounded by statues of eighteen ancient philosophers. In 1731 the Farnese estate was inherited by Charles of Bourbon
, who moved some of the marbles, including the Venus, across the Tiber River to the Villa Farnesina
.
In 1786 the Bourbons decided to move the Venus Kallipygos to Naples
with the rest of the Farnese collection. First, however, it was sent to be restored by Carlo Albacini. Responding to contemporary criticisms of some of the statue's features, Albacini replaced the head, the arms, and one leg; he followed the previous restoration fairly faithfully in having the figure look back over her shoulder. By 1792 the statue was at the Museum of Capodimonte in Naples, and by 1802 it was in the Museo degli Studi, now the Naples National Archaeological Museum
, where it remains.
and J. G. W. Henderson describe it as having "created a 'masterpiece' in place of a fragment..." The restored statue's pose draws further attention to the naked buttocks, and gives the figure a distinctly erotic aspect. The restoration recalled in the minds of viewers a story recorded in Athenaeus
' Deipnosophists 12.554 c–e of two girls in Syracuse who were trying to decide which of them had the more shapely buttocks:
This tale was circulated in Vincenzo Cartari
's 16th-century retelling of stories from classical mythology, Le Imagini. The fact that there was a religious cult of Aphrodite Kallipygos at Syracuse is also mentioned by the Christian author Clement of Alexandria
in a list of erotic manifestations of pagan religion. Clement cites the poet Nicander
of Colophon, and generously quotes the alternative term (kalligloutos, "with a beautiful bottom") that Nicander used.
Many viewers of the 17th and 18th centuries identified the subject as the goddess, and supposed the work to be a cult statue to Venus Kallipygos. It was thus often described at the time as Venus exiting the bath. Others, however, identified it instead with one of the "beautiful-buttocked" girls from Athenaeus' story, and as such it was alternatively known as "La Belle Victorieuse" or "La Bergère Grecque".
In 1836, Famin called it a "charming statuette" but noted that it was:
(1686) was sent to Versailles. Another copy was made by François Barois
during his residence at the French Academy in Rome
, 1683-86. It was sent to Versailles
, then to Marly-le-Roi
in 1695, where it was provided with additional marble draperies by Jean Thierry, not to offend an increasingly prudish public taste; it remained at Marly until the Revolution, when it found its way to the Jardin des Tuileries.
Augustus the Strong ordered a copy, which was executed by Pierre de l’Estache
in Rome between 1722-23, for the Grosser Garten, Dresden. However it was destroyed in 1945 (Desmas 2002).
, in his "Vénus Callipyge" which seems explicitly to reference Jean de La Fontaine
in his "Conte Tirée d'Athénée" among the posthumous tales (the third under that title in the so-called 'contes libertins', the first two in the Première partie, published 10 January 1665), which paraphrases Athenaeus' account and ends in direct reference to the famous buttocks:
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
marble
Marble sculpture
Marble sculpture is the art of creating three-dimensional forms from marble. Sculpture is among the oldest of the arts. Even before painting cave walls, early humans fashioned shapes from stone. From these beginnings, artifacts have evolved to their current complexity...
statue, thought to be a copy of an older Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
original. In an example of anasyrma
Anasyrma
Anásyrma , also called anasyrmós, is the gesture of lifting up the skirt or kilt. It is used in connection with certain religious rituals, eroticism, and lewd jokes, see e.g. Baubo. The term is used in describing corresponding works of art...
, it depicts a partially draped woman, raising her light peplos
Peplos
A peplos is a body-lengthGreek garment worn by women before 500 BC. The peplos is a tubular cloth folded inside-out from the top about halfway down, altering what was the top of the tube to the waist and the bottom of the tube to ankle-length. The garment is then gathered about the waist and the...
to uncover her hips and buttocks, and looking back and down over her shoulder, perhaps to evaluate them. The subject is conventionally identified as Venus
Venus (mythology)
Venus is a Roman goddess principally associated with love, beauty, sex,sexual seduction and fertility, who played a key role in many Roman religious festivals and myths...
(Aphrodite
Aphrodite
Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation.Her Roman equivalent is the goddess .Historically, her cult in Greece was imported from, or influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia....
), though it may equally be a portrait of a mortal woman.
The statue dates to the late 1st century BC. The lost original on which it is based is thought to have been bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
, and to have been executed around 300 BC, towards the beginning of the Hellenistic era. Its provenance
Provenance
Provenance, from the French provenir, "to come from", refers to the chronology of the ownership or location of an historical object. The term was originally mostly used for works of art, but is now used in similar senses in a wide range of fields, including science and computing...
is unknown, but it was rediscovered, missing its head, in the early modern era. The head was restored, first in the 16th century and again in the 18th century (in which case the sculptor followed the earlier restoration fairly closely); the restored head was made to look over the shoulder, drawing further attention to the statue's bare buttocks and thereby contributing to its popularity. In the 17th and 18th centuries the statue was identified as Venus and associated with a temple to Aphrodite Kallipygos at Syracuse, discussed by Athenaeus
Athenaeus
Athenaeus , of Naucratis in Egypt, Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourished about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century AD...
in his Deipnosophists. The statue was copied a number of times, including by Jean-Jacques Clérion
Jean-Jacques Clérion
Jean-Jacques Clérion was a French sculptor who worked mainly for King Louis XIV.Clérion was born in either Aix-en-Provence or Trets. For much of his career he worked on the Chateau de Versailles, including many of the famous garden sculptures, such as the "Apollo Fountain"...
and François Barois
François Barois
François Barois was a French sculptor. While residing at the French Academy in Rome he produced a copy of the Kallipygian Venus for Louis XIV, on which he worked from 1683 to 1686. His Cleopatra Dying was his reception piece for the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1700; it is now...
.
History
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
work in marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
, dating to the late 1st century BC. It is considered to be a copy or "paraphrase" of an older Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
statue, probably bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
. This lost original is thought to have been created around 300 BC, near the inception of the Hellenistic era. Its sculptor and provenance
Provenance
Provenance, from the French provenir, "to come from", refers to the chronology of the ownership or location of an historical object. The term was originally mostly used for works of art, but is now used in similar senses in a wide range of fields, including science and computing...
are unknown. It was rediscovered, missing its head, in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
by at least the 16th century. It is sometimes said to have been found in the ruins of Emperor Nero
Nero
Nero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....
's Domus Aurea
Domus Aurea
The Domus Aurea was a large landscaped portico villa, designed to take advantage of artificially created landscapes built in the heart of Ancient Rome by the Emperor Nero after the Great Fire of Rome had cleared away the aristocratic dwellings on the slopes of the Palatine...
, though this is unlikely as fragments uncovered there contained no evidence of high-quality artworks such as the Venus.
The missing head was reconstructed in the 16th century; a more thorough reconstruction was undertaken by Carlo Albacini
Carlo Albacini
Carlo Albacini was an Italian sculptor and restorer of Ancient Roman sculpture, a pupil of Bartolomeo Cavaceppi, an eminent sculptor and restorer of Rome...
in the late 18th century. The restorers decided to have the figure look over her shoulder at her own buttocks, a choice that gave the Venus its distinctive pose and had a significant effect on later interpretations of the work. The statue was acquired by the Farnese family and was in the Palazzo Farnese by 1594; it may be the draped Venus described as being in the palace by visitors earlier that century. In the 17th century it is known to have been kept in the palace's Sala dei Filosophi, where it stood surrounded by statues of eighteen ancient philosophers. In 1731 the Farnese estate was inherited by Charles of Bourbon
Charles III of Spain
Charles III was the King of Spain and the Spanish Indies from 1759 to 1788. He was the eldest son of Philip V of Spain and his second wife, the Princess Elisabeth Farnese...
, who moved some of the marbles, including the Venus, across the Tiber River to the Villa Farnesina
Villa Farnesina
The Villa Farnesina is a Renaissance suburban villa in the Via della Lungara, in the district of Trastevere in Rome, central Italy.The villa was built for Agostino Chigi, a rich Sienese banker and the treasurer of Pope Julius II. Between 1506–1510, the Sienese artist and pupil of Bramante,...
.
In 1786 the Bourbons decided to move the Venus Kallipygos to Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
with the rest of the Farnese collection. First, however, it was sent to be restored by Carlo Albacini. Responding to contemporary criticisms of some of the statue's features, Albacini replaced the head, the arms, and one leg; he followed the previous restoration fairly faithfully in having the figure look back over her shoulder. By 1792 the statue was at the Museum of Capodimonte in Naples, and by 1802 it was in the Museo degli Studi, now the Naples National Archaeological Museum
Naples National Archaeological Museum
The Naples National Archaeological Museum is a museum in Naples, southern Italy, at the northwest corner of the original Greek wall of the city of Neapolis. The museum contains a large collection of Roman artifacts from Pompeii, Stabiae and Herculaneum...
, where it remains.
Interpretations
The restorers' decision to have the figure look over her back greatly affected subsequent interpretations, to the point that the classicists Mary BeardMary Beard (classicist)
Winifred Mary Beard is Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Newnham College. She is the Classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement, and author of the blog "", which appears in The Times as a regular column...
and J. G. W. Henderson describe it as having "created a 'masterpiece' in place of a fragment..." The restored statue's pose draws further attention to the naked buttocks, and gives the figure a distinctly erotic aspect. The restoration recalled in the minds of viewers a story recorded in Athenaeus
Athenaeus
Athenaeus , of Naucratis in Egypt, Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourished about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century AD...
' Deipnosophists 12.554 c–e of two girls in Syracuse who were trying to decide which of them had the more shapely buttocks:
- "The people of those days were so attached to their sensual pleasures that they even went so far as to dedicate a temple to Aphrodite of the Beautiful Buttocks, for the following reason. Once upon a time a farmer had two beautiful daughters. One day these girls, getting into a dispute as to which one had a more beautiful backside, went out onto the public street. And by chance a young man was passing by, the son of a rich old man. They showed themselves to him, and when he saw them he voted in favor of the older girl. And in fact, falling in love with her, when he got back to town, he took to his bed and told his younger brother everything that had happened. And the younger brother also went to the country and saw the girls, and he fell in love with the other daughter. And so when the boys' father tried to get them to marry someone of the upper classes, he couldn't persuade his sons, and so he brought the girls in from the country, with their father's permission, and married them to his sons. And so these girls were called fair-buttocked by the citizens, as CercidasCercidasCercidas was a poet, Cynic philosopher, and legislator for his native city Megalopolis. A papyrus roll containing fragments from seven of his Cynic poems was discovered at Oxyrhynchus in 1906.-Life:...
of Megalopolis says in his Iambic Verses: "There was a pair of beautiful-buttocked girls in Syracuse." And so these girls, when they got wealthy and famous, founded a temple of Aphrodite and called the goddess the Fair-buttocked, as Archelaus of Chersonesus tells us in his Iambic Verses."
Vincenzo Cartari
Vincenzo Cartari was an Italian mythographer and diplomat of the Italian Renaissance.According to Jean Seznec, Cartari was probably a protégé of the duke of Ferrara...
's 16th-century retelling of stories from classical mythology, Le Imagini. The fact that there was a religious cult of Aphrodite Kallipygos at Syracuse is also mentioned by the Christian author Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria
Titus Flavius Clemens , known as Clement of Alexandria , was a Christian theologian and the head of the noted Catechetical School of Alexandria. Clement is best remembered as the teacher of Origen...
in a list of erotic manifestations of pagan religion. Clement cites the poet Nicander
Nicander
Nicander of Colophon , Greek poet, physician and grammarian, was born at Claros, , near Colophon, where his family held the hereditary priesthood of Apollo. He flourished under Attalus III of Pergamum.He wrote a number of works both in prose and verse, of which two survive complete...
of Colophon, and generously quotes the alternative term (kalligloutos, "with a beautiful bottom") that Nicander used.
Many viewers of the 17th and 18th centuries identified the subject as the goddess, and supposed the work to be a cult statue to Venus Kallipygos. It was thus often described at the time as Venus exiting the bath. Others, however, identified it instead with one of the "beautiful-buttocked" girls from Athenaeus' story, and as such it was alternatively known as "La Belle Victorieuse" or "La Bergère Grecque".
In 1836, Famin called it a "charming statuette" but noted that it was:
- "...placed in a reserved hall, where the curious are only introduced under the surveillance of a guardian, though even this precaution has not prevented the rounded forms which won for the goddess the name of Callipyge, from being covered with a dark tint, which betrays the profane kisses that fanatic admirers have every day impressed there. We ourselves knew a young German tourist smitten with a mad passion for this voluptuous marble; and the commiseration his state of mind inspired set aside all idea of ridicule."
Modern copies
A marble copy by Jean-Jacques ClérionJean-Jacques Clérion
Jean-Jacques Clérion was a French sculptor who worked mainly for King Louis XIV.Clérion was born in either Aix-en-Provence or Trets. For much of his career he worked on the Chateau de Versailles, including many of the famous garden sculptures, such as the "Apollo Fountain"...
(1686) was sent to Versailles. Another copy was made by François Barois
François Barois
François Barois was a French sculptor. While residing at the French Academy in Rome he produced a copy of the Kallipygian Venus for Louis XIV, on which he worked from 1683 to 1686. His Cleopatra Dying was his reception piece for the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1700; it is now...
during his residence at the French Academy in Rome
French Academy in Rome
The French Academy in Rome is an Academy located in the Villa Medici, within the Villa Borghese, on the Pincio in Rome, Italy.-History:...
, 1683-86. It was sent to Versailles
Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....
, then to Marly-le-Roi
Marly-le-Roi
Marly-le-Roi is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris from the centre....
in 1695, where it was provided with additional marble draperies by Jean Thierry, not to offend an increasingly prudish public taste; it remained at Marly until the Revolution, when it found its way to the Jardin des Tuileries.
Augustus the Strong ordered a copy, which was executed by Pierre de l’Estache
Pierre de l’Estache
Pierre de l’Estache was a French sculptor. He produced a copy of the Kallipygian Venus in Rome in 1722-23, for Augustus the Strong's Grosser Garten in Dresden . He was president of the French Academy in Rome in 1737-1738...
in Rome between 1722-23, for the Grosser Garten, Dresden. However it was destroyed in 1945 (Desmas 2002).
Modern appreciation
The 19th-century identification was re-popularised by the 20th century lyrics of the French songwriter Georges BrassensGeorges Brassens
Georges Brassens , 22 October 1921 – 29 October 1981), was a French singer-songwriter and poet.Brassens was born in Sète, a town in southern France near Montpellier...
, in his "Vénus Callipyge" which seems explicitly to reference Jean de La Fontaine
Jean de La Fontaine
Jean de La Fontaine was the most famous French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his Fables, which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Europe and numerous alternative versions in France, and in French regional...
in his "Conte Tirée d'Athénée" among the posthumous tales (the third under that title in the so-called 'contes libertins', the first two in the Première partie, published 10 January 1665), which paraphrases Athenaeus' account and ends in direct reference to the famous buttocks: