VENUS DE MILO IN LOUVRE MUSEUM
,PARIS.
(Lying inside room 344, Sully Wing, Level 0.)
As one of art history's most significant sculptures, the Venus de Milo continues to captivate audiences today. The marble masterpiece is celebrated for its Hellenistic artistry, renowned for its beauty, and famous for its absent arms.
This Greek statue is 6 feet 8 inches in height with arms broken. Done in around 130 to 100 BCE, it was recovered from a Greek island in early 18th century . Housed in Louvre Museum, Paris, it is believed to be a masterpiece representing feminine beauty. This larger than life dreamlike masterpiece is said to be created by Alexandros of Antioch, a legendary Greek sculptor of the Hellenistic age also known for crafting several other ancient sculptures including the statue of Alexander the Great.
Together with the Mona Lisa and The Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Venus de Milo is one of the three most famous female figures in the Louvre. The name Venus de Milo comes from Venus, the Roman name for Aphrodite, and Milos, the Greek island where the statue was discovered in 1820 and acquired by Marquis de Rivière, the French ambassador to Greece at that time. He then presented her to King Louis XVIII, who donated her to the Louvre in March 1821. In barely two years, the Venus had moved from the shadows to the light. According to experts, the Venus de Milo inspired women of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries to aspire to an unrealistic ideal of beauty. During that period, a curvy shape inspired by the statue came into vogue.
When the statue first arrived at the Louvre, it was suggested that her missing arms should be restored, but the idea was eventually abandoned for fear of changing the nature of the work.The lack of arms made it hard to identify the statue. Many depictions of Greek gods and goddesses contain clues to their identity in the form of ‘attributes’ (objects or natural elements) held in their hands, so this sculpture posed a problem: is she the sea goddess Amphitrite, particularly worshipped on the island of Melos? Or is she Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, as might be suggested by her sensual, half-naked body? This second argument, and the jewellery she once wore, tipped the scales in favour of Aphrodite (‘Venus’ for the Romans). Another possible clue was found near the statue: a hand holding an apple – an attribute of Aphrodite – carved from the same Parian marble.While it was unearthed in pieces, it was able to be reassembled. Its fragmented arms—the left holding an apple and the right brushing against the figure's waist—however, were deemed unoriginal and not re-attached.
In 1936, a Spanish surrealist artis Salvador Dali portrayed a half-size plaster replica of the famous Venus de Milo by incorporating drawers in the statue’s left knee, abdomen, stomach, breasts, and forehead. This transformation of the effigy into a piece of living furniture by Dali was inspired by the works of Sigmund Freud.
The Venus de Milo can be admired today in the last of a long series of rooms where she stands in almost solitary splendour. The magnificent red marble decoration of the room dates from the early 19th century and the reign of Napoleon I.
( Avtar Mota)
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