Inv.-Nr. 1393

Statue der Aphrodite (sog. Kauernde Aphrodite)

Rom, Vatikanische Museen 815
römische Kopie aus dem 2. Jh. n. Chr. nach einem griechischen Original um 260 v. Chr.

This image of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and sex, play complex games of concealing and revealing with the viewer. What can be seen of the goddess’ naked flesh? What cannot be seen? Does she want the viewer to see more or less? Depending on the angle at which you approach the statue, different perspectives are available.

Aphrodite’s pose is of a woman caught in the middle of bathing, crouching partly as part of the process to wash herself, and partly to shield her body from view. The pose is designed to excite and titillate – revealing just enough to pique the viewer’s interest, but concealing enough to hold their attention.

The coy, yet enticing figure sets up an ideal for female sexuality as something fundamentally determined by the male gaze and male power. The sculpture dramatizes a moment when Aphrodite is passive rather than active, held helplessly in the gaze – and therefore in the power – of the viewer. The most important thing about Aphrodite (and, by extension, ideal female sexuality) is not what she does or her abilities, but simply being seen.

This cast was taken from a sculpture now in the Vatican Museums in Rome, but which was originally discovered near Split in modern Croatia. It is a Roman copy of a popular Hellenistic statue type, known as the ‘Crouching Aphrodite’. Several ancient examples of this statue type exist, with examples discovered across Italy, on the island of Rhodes, and as far north as Vienne in France. The type has sometimes been associated with a passage in Pliny (NH 36.4) that seems to attribute it to the sculptor Doidalses, but the passage is corrupt and so the authorship of the original Hellenistic piece remains unknown.

The Crouching Aphrodite is not the only model for female nudity that we can find in the ancient world. For a contrast, go downstairs to see the Amazons depicted on the frieze from the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos (also part of this tour).