Venus De Milo Essay

The Venus De Milo was discovered in 1820 on the island of Melos (Milos in modern Greek) in the southwestern Cyclades. It was sculpted by Alexandros of Antioch. There used to be an inscription on its plinth, however that has since been lost. Upon its discovery, it was given to King Louis XVIII who then donated it to the Louvre Museum, where it resides to this day. The statue was instantly famous, and adored by all. It was found in pieces on the Aegean island of Melos on April 8, 1820, and was presented to Louis XVIII (who then donated it to the Louvre in 1821). Composed of essentially two blocks of Parian marble, it was sculpted in several separate pieces (i.e. the arms, bust, legs) then fixed in place with vertical pegs, a very common technique in the Greek world. (Especially the Cyclades where this piece was

One which represents the epitome of female beauty.In terms of the scale of the piece, Venus de Milo stands six foot eight inches tall, two-point zero two meters, an almost larger than life depiction. The scale also may point to the notion that this is Aphrodite, as she is depicted much larger than many other statues, showing her importance. It has been theorized by many art historians, that Aphrodite's arms told the story of "The judgement of Paris. In this story, a young trojan prince named Paris, is given a golden apple by the goddess of discord and is told to award the apple to the most beautiful of the three women: Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena. Aphrodite won by bribing young Paris with the love of the most beautiful mortal woman: Helen of Sparta. Another element of the statues which points to this being Aphrodite, is the depiction of her half naked. Aphrodite was often drawn, or sculpted in the nude, since she is the goddess of beauty and love, her body is representative of the "ideal woman's