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Venus De Milo Essay

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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 …show more content…

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

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Made from parian marble sculpted separately before being fixed with vertical legs, this piece of art is usually thought to portray Aphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess of physical love and beauty. Venus de Milo is a statue of a naked woman with no arms, restoration experts have said that the statues arms and original base or plinth have been lost almost since the work arrived in Paris in 1820. It has been said that this was partly due to an error of identification because when the statue was originally reassembled, the other pieces that came of the left hand and arm were not believed to belong to it because of their overall rough appearance. This goddess is often shown with mystery, her attitude always tends to be unknown. However to this day, many experts are confident that these additional pieces were part of the original work of art despite the variation in the final product since it was often common to spend less time and effort to the parts believed to be less visible of a sculpture, Many sculpture reconstruction experts guess that the separately carved right arm of the Venus de Milo laid across her torso with her right hand rested on her raised left knee, hence her clasping the clothing covering

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UXT Task 2 Austin Olooaringo (ID# 000556089) Western Governors University Work: Alexandros of Antioch, Venus de Milo, c. 130−100 BC Period: classical Period A1. Initial Thoughts My initial thought was the display of feminine beauty and grace as seen from an artist perspective dating back in time. The goddess Aphrodite is a sculptural elegance that has continued to fascinate the art world and remains relevant from the time of its discovery on the island of Melos around 1820. Her posture and demeanor reflect confidence of her personality and womanhood.

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