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The Esquiline Venus

Anon., c.50

White marble

Rome, Capitoline Museums

The Esquiline Venus, smaller-than-life-size nude marble sculpture of a female in a sandal and headdress, c. 50 AD.

Contents 1 History 2 Subject 3 In modern art 4 Notes 5 References 5.1 Cleopatra? 6 External links

It was found on the Esquiline Hill in the Horti Lamiani (one of the imperial gardens, rich archaeological sources of classical sculpture)^[1] in 1874, during intensive building work on the site to make Rome ready as Italy's capital following the Risorgimento. It is of Pasiteles's school. It soon passed into the collection of the Capitoline Museums ^[2], where it now resides, and is usually on display at its Centrale Montemartini.[2] From December 2006 to February 4 2007, however, she is the centrepiece of the exhibition "Cleopatra and the Caesars" at the Bucerius Kunst Forum at Hamburg.[3]

Its arms were broken off when the statue fell after the imperial park in which it stood fell into neglect after antiquity. They have been frequently restored in paintings (see below), but never in reality. The difference between the face (echoing the severe style of the 5th century BC) and the delicate anatomy to the compared knees indicates a retrospective, Neo-Attic style.

The statue's subject has been interpreted as:

• the Roman goddess Venus, possibly in the form Venus Anadyomene
• a nude mortal woman, bathing
• a female version of the diadumenos (see below)
• a Ptolemaic commission, or a copy of one (perhaps a copy commissioned by Claudius himself for the imperial gardens).^[3]

The sculpture inspired many artistic reconstructions in the decade after its discovery. Chief among these are Alma Tadema's 1877 "A Sculptor's Model" and Edward Poynter's 1884 "Diadumene". These both portrayed the statue or its model binding her hair with a strip of fabric (as with the statue type diadumenos) (in preparation for modelling for the statue or for taking a bath respectively). Poynter believed this to be the correct reconstruction partly because the remains of the little finger of her left hand were visible on the back of her head, suggesting her left arm was raised to hold her hair in place, whilst the right hand wound the fabric. At the Centrale Montemartini, the actual statue is now usually dislayed behind a 'pool' (actually a glass floor panel) in tribute to this rendering.[4]

1. ^ In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Laocoon and Discobolus had already been found here.
2. ^ Accession number: inv. MC1141
3. ^ This identification is based on the statue's Egyptian-style robe, descending over a vase, the asp on the vase, and curly hair and, if correct, could make it a cult statue of Isis, an image (perhaps that set up by Julius Caesar) of Cleopatra VII as Isis or Venus-Isis (the two were frequently conflated), a view backed by the Italian philologist Licinio Glori in 1955; or a copy of the statue of Cleopatra set up by Caesar in the temple of Venus Genetrix, a view supported by Bernard Andreae. For bibliography on this point, see here.

• Mary Beard, 'Archaeology and Collecting in late-nineteenth century Rome', from exhibition catalogue to the Royal Academy exhibition "Ancient Art to Post-Impressionism - Masterpieces from the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen"
• Charles Waldstein, 'Pasiteles and Arkesilaos, the Venus Genetrix and the Venus of the Esquiline', The American Journal of Archaeology and of the History of the Fine Arts, Vol. 3, No. 1/2 (Jun., 1887), pp. 1-13

• Das Gesicht der Göttin., 16.10.2006, Der Spiegel. Hamburg 2006, 42, S. 181
• Berthold Seewald, So sah Kleopatra wirklich aus, Die Welt, 26 October 2006 (in German)[5]
• Bernard Andreae, Dorothea Gall, Günter Grimm, Heinz Heinen et al, "Kleopatra und die Caesaren", hrsg. von Ortrud Westheider, Karsten Müller (2006: Munich, Hirmer Verlag)
• Cleo Uncovered (exhibition review of "Cleopatra and the Caesars"), Current World Archaeology 20, pages 42-43

• Buffalo - more images, including back view
• The Victorian Nude
• Indiana - images (specifically here and here).