Praxiteles, Aphrodite at the toilet, Property of the Stiftung Hamburger Kunstsammlungen, Clay, hand modelled, pressed into the form, Clay, Total: Height: 48 cm, Ceramics, History of Venus (Aphrodite), Toilet of Venus, Middle Imperial Period, Roman Antiquity, The unusually large statuette depicts the goddess Aphrodite, Venus at the toilet. The figure is worked flat and flat. It is composed of different parts, which may explain the different qualities of the different parts of the body. The goddess stands in calm frontality, both arms raised. With her right hand she holds up the tip of her cloak, which is wrapped around her abdomen, so that it forms a kind of foil. The left hand held a mirror. The right leg is the supporting leg, the left leg is the game leg. At the feet Aphrodite wears sandals, the straps of which are indicated in red color. Below the breasts a painted bosom band (lat. fascia pectoralis) can be seen. The very voluminous hairstyle consists of twelve wavy strands of hair starting from the middle parting or the temples, a 'crown' on the parting and the freely falling curls. This hairstyle was introduced by the Roman empress Iulia Domna, whose early portraits (type Gabii) with their regularly undulating waves served as a model for the coroplast. This ensures a dating to the Severan period, which is confirmed by the special eye formation, the flatness and the frontal structure. The statuette belongs to a larger group, which was probably made in the Ionian Smyrna. On the basis of various clues, it is being considered whether the solemnity of the apparition has been handed down to a famous cult group of the Middle Imperial period. Since the statuettes - as far as known - all originate from graves, an interpretation from the sepulchral realm suggests itself: The deceased should, if not be equated with the deity, then at least be approximated to it. Venus, according to Tibull (Poems I, 3, 57-58), will lead the person who was devoted to her to the Elysian real
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