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A Tale of Seven Nudes: The Capitoline and Medici Aphrodites, Four Nymphs at Elean Herakleia, and an Aphrodite at Megalopolis*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

Andrew Stewart
Andrew Stewart*
Affiliation:
The University of California at Berkeley, astewart@berkeley.edu
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Extract

The Capitoline Aphrodite (fig. 1) counts among the most copied statues of antiquity. In 1951, Bianca Felletti Maj collected 101 replicas of the type compared with 33 for the Medici Aphrodite (fig. 2) and a mere five for the so-called Aphrodite of the Troad; and many more examples have surfaced since.’ Yet despite the Capitoline type's popularity, the date, location and authorship of its original remain clouded, as does its relation to these other ‘pudica’-type Aphrodites, especially the Medici. Leaving aside the Aphrodite of the Troad, this article presents new evidence that may resolve one of these problems and sheds some new light upon some of the others.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antichthon , Volume 44 , November 2010 , pp. 12 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © Australasian Society for Classical Studies 2010

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Footnotes

*

This study was conceived in 1999, begun in 2005, and completed in summer 2008 on a visiting fellowship at the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut m Berlin. There, working through its splendid collection of periodicals, I came upon Xeni Arapoyianni's publication of the Elean mirror illustrated in figs 9 and 10, which I had noticed in the Elis Museum nine years previously. I would like to thank the DATs director. Dr Ortwin Dally, for his warm hospitality and confidence in my work; Bruce Marshall, for asking me to publish in Antichthon my plenary address to the 2008 Australasian Society for Classical Studies’ conference in Christchurch, New Zealand, and for kindly agreeing to consider this essay in its stead; Graham Zanker, for inviting me to address the conference in the first place; and finally, the following friends, students, and colleagues for their help with particular points: Beryl Barr-Sharrar, Andrea Berlin, Christopher Hallett, Rachel Lesser, Susan Rotroff, Kristen Seaman, Kim Shelton, and two anonymous reviewers for Antichthon. Dr Arapo-yianni kindly both supplied the photograph of the Elean mirror in fig. 9 and gave me permission to publish it and the drawing in fig. 10.

References

1 Maj, B. Felletti, ‘“Afrodite Pudica”: Saggio dell’ arte ellenistica’, ArchClass 3 (1951) 32-65, at 61–5Google Scholar; updates, LIMC 2 (Geneva 1984) s.v. ‘Aphrodite’, nos 412-18, 419–21 (A. Delivorrias)Google Scholar; Corso, A., ‘L'Afrodite Capitolina e l'arte del Cefisodoto il giovane’, Quaderni ticinesi di numismatica e antichità classiche 21 (1992) 131–57Google Scholar. On the two types see most recently Havelock, C.M., The Aphrodite of Knidos and her Successors (Ann Arbor 1996) 74–80 (overlooks Corso)Google Scholar; Andreae, B., Schönheit des Realismus: Auftraggeber, Schöpfer, Betrachter hellenistische Plastik (Mainz 1998) 47–50 Google Scholar; Andreae, B., Skulptur des Hellenismus (Munich 2001) 70–2Google Scholar; Pasquier, A. and Martinez, J.-L., Praxitèle (Paris 2007) 146–8Google Scholar; Corso, A., The Art of Praxiteles II: The Mature Years (Rome 2007) 44–6Google Scholar. More copies of each type are listed in the Appendix at the end of the present study.

2 Felletti Maj (n. 1) lists 16 copies with a loutrophoros, to which add four more listed in the Appendix below. The fringed cloak is present in at least a dozen copies, though I have not made a thorough search. Often called a towel, it is almost certainly a fancy himation, as Christopher Hallett reminds me. For discussions see e.g. Blinkenberg, C., Knidia (Copenhagen 1933) 216–228 Google Scholar; Thompson, D.M., ‘A Bronze Dancer from Alexandria’, AJA 54 (1950) 371-85, at 380 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and esp. Mandel, U., ‘Zum Fransentuch des Typus Colonna’, lit. Mitt. 39 (1989) 547–54Google Scholar, listing numerous examples dating back to the fifth century BC, including e.g. Hera's mantle on a bell faaiernear the Talos Painter, Villa Giulia 2382 (ARV1339/4: c. 400 BC); a cloth draped over a chest on the Marsyas Painter's nuptial lebes in St Petersburg (ARV 1475/1: c. 350); and Hera's mentioned in a Samian treasury inventory of 347/6 ( AM 68 [1953] 46–8, pis 9-10, lines 20-21 [11.15])Google Scholar. For Hellenistic examples see e.g. Bieber, M., Griechische Kleidung [Berlin 1928; repr. 1977] 67–8, pl. 33, 2-3Google Scholar; Thompson, passim; Bieber, , The Sculpture of the Hellenistic Age, rev. edn [New York 1961] figs 378-9, 461, 523, 525Google Scholar; Linfert, A., Kunstzentren hellenistischer Zeit [Wiesbaden 1976] pis 17, 55, 66Google Scholar; Ridgway, B.S., Hellenistic Sculpture!: The Styles of ca. 200-100B.C. [Madison 2000] 125, pis 41-2)Google Scholar. This type of cloak was also popular in Roman Asia Minor.

3 Felletti Maj (n. 1) lists six copies with a hydria, 14 with a dolphin, 17 with a dolphin ridden by Eros, and two with a sea-monster, to which add seven more with a dolphin and three with a dolphin and Eros, all listed in the Appendix.

4 On the Knidia's motif and narrative moment, see Seaman, K.H., ‘Retrieving the Original Aphrodite of Knidos’, Atti della Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Anno 401 Google Scholar. Classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche. Rendiconti 9.15.3 (2004) 531–94Google Scholar; and most recently, Corso (n. 1) 9-37.

5 Pirenne-Delforge, V., L'Aphrodite grecque, Kernos supplement 4 (Athens-Liège 1994) 433–7Google Scholar; to her references add Poseidippos 39 and 119 Austin-Bastianini ( =P.Mil.Vogl. VIII.309, col. vi.30-37Google Scholar; Ath. 7.318d) on the Alexandrian shrine of Arsinoe/Aphrodite Euploia at Cape Zephyrion dedicated by the Ptolemaic admiral Kallikrates, specifying its connection with good sailing conditions. The Aphrodite Anadyomene at Kos by the contemporary painter Apelles surely celebrated the goddess's birth from the sea-foam (Strabo 14.657; Plin, . HN 35.91 Google Scholar; Anth. Plan. 178-82; etc.). Almost as famous in its time as the Knidia, and also inspiring many versions in the round, it was even more influential upon Western art.

6 Seaman (n. 4) 561-4, referencing e.g. Od. 8.360–7Google Scholar and Hom. Hymn 5.58–67 Google Scholar on her baths at Paphos, and Eur. IT 818-9, Thuc. 2.15.5, and Aeschin. 10.3-8 on pre-nuptial bathing in general. I thank Kristen Seaman and Rachel Lesser for discussing these scenarios with me.

7 Ps.-Lucian, Amores 13:

8 Cf. Anth. Plan. 168: ‘[Among mortals,] Paris, Anchises, and Adonis saw me naked. / Those are all I know of; but how did Praxiteles contrive it?’

9 Anth.Plan. 160 (Plato):

The last two lines are a later addition but fully in accord with the spirit of the epigram. See e.g. Od. 8.266–366 Google Scholar, where the goddess's adulterous affair with Ares (which takes place ‘in the house of Hephaistos’ [line 268]) and post-coital bath are conjoined.

10 Art, Desire, and the Body in Ancient Greece (Cambridge 1996) 103 Google Scholar.

11 Anth. Plan. 162-3, 168.

12 A curiosity noticed, apparently, by Apul. Met. 2.17 Google Scholar: [the courtesan, Photis, like Aphrodite, approaches the hero like Venus coming ashore] paullsper etiam glabeilum feminal rosea palmula potius obumbrans de industria quam tegens verecundia - a remark that also helps to confirm the communis opiniolhat these statues omitted the goddess's pubic hair.

13 Bruckner, A., Anakalypteria, Programm zum Wincke/mannsfeste der archäologischen Gesellschaft zu Berlin no. 64 (Berlin 1904) 16–17 Google Scholar; cf. Ginouvès, R., Balaneutikè. Recherches sur le bain dans l'antiquité grecque, Bibliothèque des Écoles françaises d'Athènes et de Rome 200 (Paris 1962) 121 Google Scholar. According to Paus. 2.10.4, Aphrodite was worshipped in this guise at Sikyon; the statue, seated and made of gold and ivory, was the work of the early fifth-century sculptor Kanachos.

14 Also noticed in the meantime by Corso (n. 1) 44, who, however, overlooks the (very different) Hellenistic examples: Rotroff, S.I., The Athenian Agora, vol. 29: Hellenistic Pottery: Athenian and Imported Wheelmade Table Ware and Related Material (Princeton 1997) 204, nos 1379-82Google Scholar. I thank Susan Rotroff for alerting me to these and discussing them with me, and Beryl Barr-Sharrar, Andrea Berlin, Susan Rotroff, Kim Shelton, and Barbara Tsakirgis for confirming, as far as they can, my hunch that this vessel type is presently unknown outside Attica.

15 Corso (n. 1) 137-8. See Ov. Ars am. 2.613–4Google Scholar: ipsa Venus pubem, quotiens velamina ponit / protegitur laeva semireducta manu. This pointed reference to the left hand rules out the Knidia (fig. 3), who shields herself with her right. For the coins showing a Capitoline- or Medici-type Aphrodite standing before an armed and armored Ares, see Bernhart, M., Aphrodite auf griechischen Münzen (Munich 1936) nos 268-9, pl. 7Google Scholar. Adonis, Anchises, Boutes and Paris are far less likely candidates: we must ask, in these cases, what they are doing at Aphrodite's pre-nuptial bath, and where this event is imagined to be taking place. Moreover, in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (lines 53-83), the goddess comes to seduce Anchises, not the other way around. Corso (n. 1) 144-5 suggests that at Anchises’ hereon on Mt Ida in the Troad this liaison was celebrated as a proper marriage and identifies the Capitoline type's original as the heroon's cult statue. Unfortunately, the source for all this (Eust. 11. 12.98) mis-identifies Aphrodite as Anchises’ mother aná (naturally enough, given this mistake) says nothing about a marriage; moreover, Paus. 8.12.9 explicitly remarks that the Troad boasted no heroon of Anchises at all. Instead, his tomb could be seen on Mt Anchisia in Arkadia, near a ruined Aphrodite sanctuary. The dominant tradition, however, placed his death and burial in Sicily.

16 Felletti Maj (n. 1) notes two copies (one of them a statuette) with a loutrophoros, one with a hydria, three with a dolphin (to which add the Metropolitan Museum copy referenced in n. 1 and listed in the Appendix, B2), four with a dolphin ridden by Eros, and one with Eros alone.

17 On this motif, cf. n. 12, above.

18 See Bernhart (n. 15) nos 229-269, pis 6-7.

19 An article by Giorgios Despinis forthcoming in AM lists almost two dozen separate examples to date.

20 IGii2. 337, 1261, 4636-7; Garland, R., The Piraeus (Ithaca NY 1987) 112-13, 228 nos 6-8Google Scholar; Parker, R., Athenian Religion: A History (Oxford 1996) 243 Google Scholar, overlooking the two dedications; Mikalson, J.D., Religion in Hellenistic Athens (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1998) 30, 45, 103, 107-8, 143, 146-7, 291–2Google Scholar.

21 On Kratine/Phryne and the Knidia see AI, Clem.. Protr. 4.47 Google Scholar and Arn, . Adv. nat. 6.22 Google Scholar (Kratine, from Poseidippos's lost poem on Knidos = Poseidippos 147 Austin-Bastianini); Ath. 13.591a (Phryne); cf. Athenagoras, Leg. pro Christ. 13 (mentioning the ‘Aphrodite hetaira at Knidos’); Stewart (n. 10) 104-6; Seaman (n. 4) 567. Aphrodite Pythionike (c. 327-325): Theopompos, FGrH 115 F 253 (= Ath. 13.595a-c); Dikaiarchos fr. 21 Wehrli (= Ath. 13.594f-595a); Python, TrGF91 F 1 (= Ath. 13.595f); Plut, . Phoc. 22.1–2 Google Scholar; Paus. 1.37.5; Scholl, A., JDAI 109 (1994) 254–68Google Scholar. Aphrodite Lamia, Aphrodite Leaina, and Aphrodite Phila (c. 307-301): Demochares, FGrH 15 F 1 (= Ath. 6.253a); Alexis fr. Ill Kock (= Ath. 6.254a); Dionysios (= Ath. 6.255c); Parker 1996 (n. 20) 258, 259; Habicht, C., Athens from Alexander to Antony (Cambridge MA 1997) 78, 92 Google Scholar; Mikalson (n. 20) 88 n. 37.

22 Ammonios of Lamptrai, FGrH36l F5; Paus. 1.1.3; etc. On this sanctuary see most recently Garland (n. 20) 112, 150, 154; Pirenne-Delforge (n. 5) 33 n. 98; Parker (n. 20) 238; Rosenzweig, R., Worshipping Aphrodite: Art and Cult in Classical Athens (Ann Arbor 2004) 90 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 Corso (n. 1) 131, 148, re Plin. HN36.24: Romae eius [sc. Cephisodoti] opera sunt… Venus in PoIIionis Asini monumentis; Ov. Ars am. 2.613–4Google Scholar (see n. 15 above); cf. Apul, . Met. 2.17 (quoted, n. 12 above)Google Scholar.

24 Ars am. 1.81–6Google Scholar; 3.451-545; Rem. am. 659-60; cf. Steinby, E.M. (ed.), Lexicon Topo-graphicum Urbis Romae I (Rome 1993-1999) s.v. ‘Appiades’ (F. Coarelli)Google Scholar.

25 On Kephisodotos's dates and career see Stewart, , Greek Sculpture: An Exploration (New Haven 1990) 295–7Google Scholar; and esp. Schultz, P., ‘Kephisodotos the Younger’, in Palagia, O. and Tracy, S.V. (eds), The Macedonians in Athens, 322-229 B.C. (Oxford 2003) 186–93Google Scholar. Havelock (n. 1 ) 74-5 surveys the opinions on the date of the Capitoline type, which range from the late fourth to the first centuries BC.

26 Corso (n. 1) 149, fig. 9; not, apparently, a Medici-type Aphrodite, since her head turns only slightly and her right elbow is pressed against her body.

27 Kokula, G., Marmorlutrophoren, AM Beiheft 10 (1984) type O (57 examples), pis 35-39 (selection)Google Scholar; cf. Clairmont, C., Classical Attic Tombstones (Kilchberg 1993) cat. nos 1.947; 2.214a; 6.166-7; etcGoogle Scholar.

28 Rotroff (n. 14) no. 1382.

29 Waldhauer, O., Die antiken Skulpturen der Ermitage, vol. 3 (Berlin 1928) pl. 10, no. 227.18; also http://commons.wikimedia.Org/wiki/Categorv:Venus Tauride Google Scholar.

30 For the Capitoline type's head, cf. e.g. the illustrations of the head of the Knidia in Pasquier and Martinez (n. 1) nos 34-42; Corso 2007 (n. 1) figs 22, 66, 88-90, 96. For the similarities between the Medici and Leconfield heads, see e.g. Bulle, H., Der schöne Mensch I: Altertum (Munich 1922) 167 (no. 256)Google Scholar, and Lippold, G., Die griechische Plastik(Munich 1951) 312 Google Scholar; on the latter see also the present author's ‘A Cast of the Leconfield Head in Paris’, Rev. Arch. 1977, 195–202, esp. figs 1-3Google Scholar; Raeder, J., Die antiken Skulpturen In Petworth House (West Sussex), Monumenta Artis Romanae 28 (Munich 2000) 34–6, pis 1-3; Pasquier and Martinez (n. l)no. 18Google Scholar.

31 The two third-century Carthaginian sarcophagi adduced by Corso (n. 1) 245 n. 168 are suggestive but hardly conclusive.

32 , Ephemeris Archaiologike (1999) 145-217, at 196–203, figs 76-87 (burial), 88-9 (mirror)Google Scholar; now Elis Museum M1446, autopsied in its case in June 1999, June 2004 and July 2007. I am most grateful to Dr Arapoyianni for kindly lending me a colour slide of the mirror and allowing me to reproduce it together with her drawing of it.

33 Schwarzmaier, A., Griechische Klappspiegel: Untersuchungen zu Typologie und Stil, AM Beiheft 18 (Berlin 1997) nos 47, 59, 98, 217, and 237, pis 57, 1; 82, 2; 83, 2; 84, 2 (no. 98 is unpublished)Google Scholar.

34 Paris, Louvre Br. 1713: de Ridder, A., Les bronzes: antiques du Louvre (Paris 1913) no. 1713, pi. 79Google Scholar; Züchner, W., Griechische Klappspiegel, JDAl Ergänzungsheft 14 (Berlin 1942) 90–1, KS 152, pl. 18Google Scholar; Schwarzmaier (n. 33) no. 217, pl. 57, 1 (c. 310).

35 Paus. 6.22.7; cf. Strabo 8.3,32, 356; RE 9.2 Google Scholar s.v. ‘Ionides’ (H. Meyer).

36 For this explanation of her name, see Usener, H., Göttemamen: Versuch einer Lehre von der religiösen Begriffsbildung (Bonn 1896) 169 Google Scholar; cf. e.g. Hippoc, . Acut. 7.7, 18.16, 18.18Google Scholar: de diaeta acutorum 6.22 Google Scholar; de morbis popularibus 5.1.58, 7.1.76Google Scholar; Morb. 2.14.8, 2.22.4,. 2.26.18, 2.27.5, 2.31.3 Google Scholar; Mul. 64; 248; etc.

37 LIMC 5 s.v. ‘Hermes’ nos 347-55, pl. 228 (G. Siebert); ШC8 s.v. ‘Nymphai’ nos 71-7, pl. 596 (M. Hahn-Tissertant, G. Siebert).

38 Coin: AE Megalopolis, Septimius Severus (AD 193-211): Blumer, F. Imhoof and Gardner, P., A Numismatic Commentary on Pausanias (London 1887; repr. Chicago 1964) 105 no. 6, pi. V.8Google Scholar; Bernhart (n. 15) no. 238, pl. 6; LIMC 2 s.v. ‘Aphrodite’ no. 421 (A. Delivorrias). Bronze statuette: Paris, Louvre MNC 1785/MND 210: LIMC 2 s.v. ‘Aphrodite’ no. 413* and ‘Aphrodite in Per. Or.’ no. 10 (A. Delivorrias).

39 J Aphrodite Machanitis: Paus. 8.31.5; endorsed, LIMC 2 s.v. ‘Aphrodite’ no. 421 (A. Delivorrias). Trio: Paus. 8.32.2-3. Commentary: Pirenne-Delforge (n. 5) 264-7, but overlooking the Severan coin (fig. 4); for the suggestion that a winged torso of Eros in the Megalopolis Museum might belong to Damophon's Aphrodite Machanitis, see Themelis, P., ‘Damophon’, in Palagia, O. and Pollitt, J.J. (eds), Personal Styles in Greek Sculpture, Yale Classical Studies 30 (New Haven 1996) 154-85, at 167 Google Scholar. If so, the Aphrodite illustrated in fig. 4 cannot be Damophon's.

40 Aphrodite Ourania and Pandemos at Elis, by Pheidias and Skopas respectively: Paus. 6.25.1.

41 A Roman bronze coin of Sikyon shows that a similar Aphrodite also stood there, but seems to have turned her head in the opposite direction, to her right: Imhoof Blumer and Gardner (n. 38) pl. H.16; Bernhart (n. 15) no. 239, pl. 6 (Julia Domna).

42 Yet there is good evidence that Kephisodotos did visit Megalopolis during the late fourth century, at exactly the right time to create the Aphrodite in question (fig. 4). Paus. 8.30.10 describes a sanctuary there housing a cult group of Zeus Soler, Artemis Soteira and a personified Megalopolis by a certain Kephisodotos. Since the ruins seem to date to c. 330-320 (see Schultz [n. 25] 190-1), he should be Kephisodotos the younger.

43 See esp. Hoff, R. von den and Schulz, P. (eds), New Directions in Early Hellenistic Portraiture (Cambridge 2007)Google Scholar.