Venus Callipyge

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Venus Callipyge
National Archaeological Museum, Naples

The Venus Callipyge, also known as the Aphrodite Kallipygos (Greek: Ἀφροδίτη Καλλίπυγος) or the Callipygian Venus, all literally meaning "Venus (or Aphrodite) of the beautiful buttocks",[a] 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 marble statue extant today dates to the late 1st century BC.

Deipnosophists. The statue was copied a number of times, including by Jean-Jacques Clérion and François Barois
.

History

Callipygian Venus (Naples)

The "Venus Kallipygos" in the

Hellenistic era.[3] The marble version's 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 works of art such as the Venus.[5][page needed
]

The missing head was reconstructed in the 16th century. The restorer 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.

Tiber River to the Villa Farnesina.[8]

In 1786 the Bourbons decided to move the Venus Kallipygos to

Museum of Capodimonte in Naples, and by 1802 it was in the Museo degli Studi, now the Naples National Archaeological Museum, where it remains.[10]

Interpretations

Musée du Louvre
)

The restorers' decision to have the figure look over her back greatly affected subsequent interpretations, to the point that the classicists

Deipnosophists about the founding of a temple of "Aphrodite Kallipygos" in ancient Syracuse, Sicily.[11] According to Athenaeus, two beautiful sisters from a farm near Syracuse argued over which of them had the shapelier buttocks and accosted a young passerby to have him judge. They showed themselves off to the traveler, the son of a rich man, and he voted for the elder sister. Subsequently, he became smitten with her and fell ill with love-sickness. Learning what had happened, the man's younger brother went out to see the girls for himself and fell in love with the younger sister. Thereafter the brothers refused to consider any other brides, so their father arranged for the sisters to come marry them. The citizens dubbed the sisters "Kallipugoi" ("Women with Beautiful Buttocks"), and with their new-found prosperity, they dedicated a temple to Aphrodite, calling her Kallipygos.[12]

Other sources mention the cult of Aphrodite Kallipygos at Syracuse. The Christian writer

cult statue from the temple of Venus Kallipygos. It was thus often described at the time as Venus exiting the bath. Others identified it instead with one of the "beautiful-buttocked" girls from Athenaeus's story, and as such it was alternatively known as "La Belle Victorieuse" or "La Bergère Grecque".[11]

In 1836, Famin [fr] 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."[14]

Modern copies

A marble copy by

Jardin des Tuileries.[15]

Augustus the Strong ordered a copy, which was executed by Pierre de l'Estache in Rome between 1722 and 1723, for the Grosser Garten, Dresden. However, it was destroyed in 1945.[16]

Sir Henry Hoare, 5th Baronet commissioned a copy of the Venus (likely by John Cheere) to be embedded in the niches of the newly constructed Pantheon on the Stourhead Estate in 1753–54.[17]

Modern appreciation

The 19th-century identification was repopularised by the 20th-century lyrics of the French lyricist Georges Brassens, in his "Vénus Callipyge",[18] which seems explicitly to reference Jean de La Fontaine in his Conte tiré d'Athénée,[19] 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's account and ends in direct reference to the famous buttocks:

c'eût été le temple de la Grèce/ Pour qui j'eusse eu plus de dévotion
this would have been the temple of Greece/ For which I would have professed the most devotion.

Metallic Venus, Jeff Koons's modern interpretation made of polished steel, is from his Antiquity Series. The highly erotic, chrome-finished sculpture celebrates the original themes of beauty, fertility, and innocence but with a modern perspective.[20] Fresh flowers in the piece are replaced daily, representing the throwaway, consumerist culture of modern society.[21]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ From the Greek words κάλλος (beauty) and πυγη (buttocks). The English "callipygian" has the same derivation and meaning.[2]

References

  1. ^ "Venere callipige — Sito ufficiale del Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli". Circuito Informativo Regionale della Campania per i Beni Culturali e Paesaggistici (in Italian). Archived from the original on 15 January 2016. Retrieved 2015-07-29.
  2. ^ "Callipygian". Oxford English Dictionary. 1933. Retrieved 29 May 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d Havelock (2007), p. 100.
  4. ^ a b c Fenton (2000), p. 16.
  5. ^ Moormann (2003).
  6. ^ a b c Beard & Henderson (2001), p. 123.
  7. ^ Haskell & Penny (1981), p. 316.
  8. ^ Haskell & Penny (1981), p. 66 and note 316.
  9. ^ Haskell & Penny (1981), p. 318.
  10. ^ Haskell & Penny (1981), pp. 316–317.
  11. ^ a b Haskell & Penny (1981), p. 317.
  12. ^ Athenaeus (1854). The Deipnosophists. Translated by C. D. Yonge. p. 554 #80. Archived from the original on 30 November 2022.
  13. ^ Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticus 2.39.2.
  14. ^ "The Royal Museum at Naples: Plate III: Venus Callipyge". Sacred-texts.com. Retrieved 2015-07-29.
  15. ^ "Vénus callipyge". Insecula. Archived from the original on 27 April 2006.
  16. ^ DESMAS, Anne-Lise (2002). "Venus Callipyge". Lestache.com. Retrieved 2015-07-29.
  17. ^ Historic England. "The Pantheon (1131102)". National Heritage List for England.
  18. ^ "Vénus callipyge - Lyrics - International Lyrics Playground". Lyricsplayground.com. 2007-10-10. Retrieved 2015-07-29.
  19. ^ de la Fontaine, Jean. "Conte tiré d'Athénée". Lafontaine.net. Archived from the original on 2016-03-30. Retrieved 2015-07-29.
  20. ^ "Metallic Venus - Jeff Koons | The Broad". www.thebroad.org. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
  21. ^ Cienkowsi, T. "What happens to Venus when the marble goddess turns metallic? Transformation of physical materials and of visual models in the 'Metallic Venus' by Jeff Koons" (PDF).

Sources

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aphrodite Kallipygos.
Look up callipygian in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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