Head of Aphrodite

Roman, 1st-2nd Century AD. Marble.

Provenance:

Former Collection of Henri Graillot (1866-1949). Passed down by succession until the present.

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This majestic head represents Aphrodite, goddess of love. The goddess seems to be twisting slightly to face the beholder. Her perfectly oval face embodies the beauty she deifies. Nothing disrupts its harmony: not her serene forehead, an exact isosceles triangle, not her brow ridges, assuredly and appealingly formed, and not her nose, which we suppose to be elegant, despite the affronts of time. Her almond-shaped eyes, rimmed with thick, firmly incised eyelids, cast an imperious gaze, that of a goddess who knows that none can escape her power. Her impassive, sovereign expression is heightened by a closed yet sensual mouth, the full lower lip of which sits above a chin so delicate it was lost to the centuries. There is a delicate transition from the full shapes of her cheeks to the shape of her neck, through exquisitely subtle modelling. Her cheek bones stretch slightly towards her ears while the dimples beneath her nose and at the corner of her mouth truly bring her face to life. It thus strikes a perfect balance between idealised beauty and a lifelike rendering of human anatomy. The perfection of her lovely face contrasts strongly with her animated, complex hair.

Divided by a centre parting, her hair flows in regular, etched waves from her forehead to her temples, where they partly conceal her carefully sculpted ears. On either side, a small lock escapes, spilling onto her cheeks, a charming detail that makes our Aphrodite appear less severe. The deity is crowned by an elaborate hairstyle. The sophisticated, even luxurious, rosette knot accentuates the sculpture’s verticality and heightens its nobility. Two locks are pulled into it from her forehead, passing over the headband she is wearing. It holds back the rest of Aphrodite’s hair, girding it in a play of texture and weight that distracts from the marble and gives the illusion that her hair is truly gripped by the adornment. A low chignon at the back of her head completes the structure of her hair and balances the whole look.

This freestanding marble statue exhibits remarkable sculptural qualities. Although it is a reduced model, the firmness of its execution and the attention to detail are nothing less than striking, similarly to those of large-scale statuary. Moreover, the contrast between the smooth, polished marble of the goddess’ flesh and the animated surface of her hair, in which the shiniest of the marble’s crystals resemble as many gems, attests to the artist’s technical mastery. The sculptor’s light, steady chiselling marvellously shaped the textures and contours of this celestial face. It bears the marks of centuries spent underground, such as the concretions that are still visible today. The nose and chin attest to its material history. Apart from its aesthetic qualities, this work is also an archaeological relic, a historical testament to a lost civilisation.

The absolute beauty and sumptuous hairstyle of this figure are two attributes that enable us to identify Aphrodite, as praised by the poet: “Muse, sing again of the works of the blonde Aphrodite, goddess of Cyprus: it is she who makes tender desires bloom in the breasts of the gods, who subjects to her laws mortals, the birds, light dwellers of the air, all the monsters, both those of the continent and those of the sea; it is she, the gentle Aphrodite, crowned with flowers, it is she who causes to bend under her works all those who breathe”. As the goddess of love, she charms by her grace and inspires desire, but here, her beauty is haughty and imperious.

She is Celestial Aphrodite, born from the waves and mother of desire, daughter of Uranus and Thalassa, according to Hesiod’s Theogony, the oldest of the Olympians and, accordingly, she occupied a unique position in the pantheon. Per the principle of interpretatio graeca, the Romans assimilated her with Venus, who shared the same attributes and functions. Venus, however, held a singular position in Rome: as the protector of Aeneas and the founder of the Latium, she became the protector of the gens Julia, then, under Augustus, the tutelary deity of the imperial dynasty.

As the embodiment of the ideal woman, Aphrodite inspired poets and artists throughout antiquity, giving rise to countless works, including one of the most famous sculptures in antiquity: Praxiteles’ Aphrodite of Cnidus. Its absolute beauty made it a major source of inspiration for all representations of the deity, including our head, which adopts the harmonious facial proportions and the wavy locks over the forehead of the Kaufmann head (Ill. 1). However, her characteristic hairstyle did not come from Praxiteles, but from a widely disseminated statuary type, that of the Capitoline Aphrodite, a head of which can be admired at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (Ill. 2). There is another remarkable version at the British Museum (Ill. 3). The hairstyle also adorns Lely’s Venus (Ill. 4), preserved at the same museum. The chignon at the back can be compared to that of a Cyrenean head preserved at the Louvre (Ill. 5).

This work was able to appeal to a demanding, expert gaze, as it was part of the collection of Henri Graillot (1868–1949). A graduate of the prestigious École Normale Supérieure and a teacher with the highest of qualifications, he turned to art history, joined the French School in Rome and participated in archaeological digs in Italy. Recognised for his in-depth knowledge of Roman antiquity, he was named Director of the French Institute of Florence from 1918 to 1938. The work remained within the same family, passed down by succession, until the present.