View source for Aphrodite of Knidos

{{Short description|Sculpture by Praxiteles of Athens from the 4th century BC}}
{{Infobox artwork
|other_title_1 = Venus pudica
|image = Cnidus Aphrodite Altemps Inv8619.jpg
|caption = The Ludovisi Knidian Aphrodite, Roman marble copy (torso and thighs) with restored head, arms, legs and drapery support
|image_upright=yes
|year=4th century BC
|italic title=no
|artist = [[Praxiteles]]
}}
The '''Aphrodite of Knidos''' (or Cnidus) was an [[Ancient Greek sculpture]] of the goddess [[Aphrodite]] created by [[Praxiteles]] of [[Athens]] around the 4th century BC.  It was one of the first life-sized [[History of nude art|representations of the nude female form]] in Greek history, displaying an alternative idea to male [[heroic nudity]]. Praxiteles' Aphrodite was shown nude, reaching for a bath towel while covering her [[Mons pubis|pubis]], which, in turn leaves her breasts exposed. Up until this point, Greek sculpture had been dominated by male nude figures. The original Greek sculpture is no longer in existence; however, many Roman copies survive of this influential work of art. Variants of the ''Venus [[Pudicitia|Pudica]]'' (suggesting an action to cover the breasts) are the [[Venus de' Medici]] and the [[Capitoline Venus]].

==Original==
The ''Aphrodite of Knidos'' was a marble carving of the goddess Aphrodite by the sculptor [[Praxiteles]], which was bought by the people of [[Knidos]] in the middle of the 4th century BC.{{sfn|Havelock|1995|pp=1, 9}}  The earliest text to mention the Aphrodite is [[Pliny the Elder]]'s ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'',{{sfn|Havelock|1995|p=10}} which reports that Praxiteles carved two sculptures of Aphrodite, one clothed and one nude; the clothed one was bought by the people of [[Kos]] and the Knidians bought the nude one.<ref>Pliny, ''Natural History'' 36.20</ref> The statue was set up as the [[cult statue]] for the [[Temple of Aphrodite, Knidos|Temple of Aphrodite at Knidos]]. It depicted the goddess Aphrodite as she prepared for the [[ritual bath]] that restored her purity, discarding her drapery with one hand, while modestly shielding herself with the other. The placement of her hands obscures her pubic area, while simultaneously drawing attention to her exposed upper body. The statue is famed for its beauty, and is designed to be appreciated from every angle.

[[Image:Aphrodite head Kaufmann Louvre.jpg|thumb|left|The Kaufmann Head in the [[Musée du Louvre]]]]
Because the various copies show different body shapes, poses and accessories, the original can only be described in general terms.  It depicted a nude woman, the body twisting in a [[contrapposto]] position, with its weight on the right foot.  Most copies show Aphrodite covering her pubic area with her right hand, while  the left holds drapery which, along with a vase, helps support the figure.{{sfn|Seaman|2004|p=538}} In most copies of the sculpture, it is ambiguous whether the Aphrodite is picking up or putting down the drapery.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Lee|first=Mireille M.|title=Other 'Ways of Seeing': Female Viewers of the Knidian Aphrodite |journal=Helios|volume=42|year=2015|p=110}}</ref> Almost all copies show the head of the sculpture turning to the left.{{sfn|Seaman|2004|p=542}} In most copies, the Aphrodite is adorned with some kind of jewellery; on large copies this usually includes an armband on the left arm.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Lee|first=Mireille M.|title=Other 'Ways of Seeing': Female Viewers of the Knidian Aphrodite |journal=Helios|volume=42|year=2015|p=112}}</ref>

The female nude appeared nearly three centuries after the earliest nude male counterparts in Greek sculpture, the [[kouros]]; the female [[Kore (sculpture)|kore]] figures were clothed. Previously nudity was a heroic uniform assigned only to men.  When making the Aphrodite of Knidos, Spivey argues that her iconography can be attributed to Praxiteles creating the statue for the intent of being viewed by male onlookers.<ref name="Spivey">{{Cite book |title= Greek Sculpture | chapter=8. Revealing Aphrodite |last=Spivey|first=Nigel|page=181 |chapter-url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/greek-sculpture/revealing-aphrodite/6CFA37587FD9B5617810D1A0F2BAA4F7 |isbn=9781316179628 |doi=10.1017/9780521760317.010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date= 2013| s2cid=239158305 }}</ref> Overwhelming evidence from the ancient sources suggests that the Knidian sculpture evoked male responses of sexuality upon viewing the statue.<ref name="Spivey" /> The Aphrodite of Knidos established a [[artistic canons of body proportions|canon for the proportions]] of the female nude.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bahrani |first= Zainab |author-link=Zainab Bahrani |title=The Hellenization of Ishtar: Nudity, Fetishism, and the Production of Cultural Differentiation in Ancient Art |journal=Oxford Art Journal |volume=19 |number= 2 |year = 1996 |page= 4 |doi= 10.1093/oxartj/19.2.3 | access-date= 4 April 2021 |jstor= 1360725 | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1360725|url-access= subscription }}</ref>{{better source|reason=This citation asserts that Praxiteles established such a canon but does not say what it is - a set of firm ratios of body proportion or simply a masterpiece for others to imitate?|date=April 2021}} 

[[Image:Knidos-coin-Aphrodite.jpg|right|thumb|[[Engraving]] of a [[coin]] from [[Knidos]] showing the Aphrodite of Knidos, by Praxiteles]]
According to Athenaeus and the late-antique rhetorician [[Choricius of Gaza]], Praxiteles used the [[hetaira|courtesan]] [[Phryne]] as the model for the Aphrodite, though [[Clement of Alexandria]] instead names the model as Cratina.{{sfn|Funke|2024|pp=67; 158|loc=n.53}}  The statue became so widely known and copied that in a humorous anecdote the goddess Aphrodite herself came to Knidos to see it. A lyric [[epigram]] of [[Antipater of Sidon]]<ref>Antipater, [[Greek Anthology]] XVI.168 [The author of this poem is listed as anonymous in the Loeb edition (The Greek Anthology Vol. V., p. 257).]</ref> places a hypothetical question on the lips of the goddess herself:
<blockquote><poem>
[[Paris (mythology)|Paris]], [[Adonis]], and [[Anchises]] saw me naked, Those
are all I know of, but how did Praxiteles contrive it?''
</poem></blockquote>

A similar epigram is attributed to Plato:

{{quote
| text = When Cypris saw Cypris at Cnidus, "Alas!" said she; "where did Praxiteles see me naked?"
| sign = [[Plato]]
| source = Epigram XVII<ref>{{cite book |translator-last=Edmonds |translator-first=J. M |chapter=Epigrams |title=Plato: Complete Works |editor-first1=John M. |editor-last1=Cooper |editor-first2= D S |editor-last2= Hutchinson |location=Indianapolis |publisher=Hackett |date=1997 |page=1744 |isbn=9780872203495}}</ref>
}}

According to an epigram from Roman poet [[Ausonius]], Praxiteles never saw what he was not meant to see, but instead sculpted Aphrodite as [[Ares]] would have wanted.<ref>{{cite book | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=1Nh4BgAAQBAJ&pg=PT122 122] | author = Ausonius | title = Epigrams | publisher = [[Bloomsbury Publishing]] | translator = N. M. Kay | author-link = Ausonius | date = March 2, 2015 | isbn = 9780715631058 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=1Nh4BgAAQBAJ | location = UK}}</ref>

The original Aphrodite of Knidos is now lost. It was taken to Constantinople in the fourth century AD,<ref>{{cite book|last=Spivey|first=Nigel|title=Greek Sculpture|year=2014|page=212}}</ref> and destroyed, either deliberately<ref>{{cite book|last=Spivey|first=Nigel|title=Understanding Greek Sculpture|year=1996|pages=178–179}}</ref> or in the fire that destroyed the [[Palace of Lausos]] in 476.{{sfn|Havelock|1995|p=9}} It is known through its many surviving copies – Kristen Seaman has catalogued 192 surviving ancient copies, making the statue perhaps the most-copied sculpture from antiquity.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Corso|first=Antonio|title=The cult and political background of the Knidian Aphrodite|journal=The Proceedings of the Danish Institute at Athens|volume=V|year=2007|page=175}}</ref> In his 1933 monograph on the Aphrodite, Christian Blinkenberg argued that the [[Colonna Venus]], in the [[Vatican Museums|Vatican's Pio-Clementine Museum]], is the most accurate surviving copy; this view is still widely, though not universally, accepted.{{sfn|Havelock|1995|pp=26–27}}

== Temple in Knidos ==
[[File:Knidos Temple of Aphrodite 95 014.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Remains of the temple of Aphrodite at Knidos excavated by [[Iris Love]]]]
The temple of Aphrodite in Knidos where the statue was displayed is described by two ancient sources, [[Pliny the Elder]] in his ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'' and [[Pseudo-Lucian]] in his ''[[Amores (Lucian)|Amores]]''.{{sfn|Montel|2010|pp=254&ndash;258}} According to Pliny, the sculpture was housed in a small building, open on all sides &ndash; by which he likely meant a ''[[monopteros]]'', a [[colonnade]] with a roof but no walls.{{sfn|Montel|2010|pp=254&ndash;255}}  In the description given by Pseudo-Lucian, on the other hand, the building which housed the statue is described as having two doors, and suggests a more confined space than Pliny's description.{{sfn|Montel|2010|pp=259&ndash;260}}  In excavations at Knidos between 1969 and 1972, [[Iris Love]] discovered the remains of a round building which she identified as the temple of Aphrodite.  This included a stone inscribed with the letters PRAX, which Love suggested was a statue base for the Knidian Aphrodite.{{sfn|Montel|2010|pp=261&ndash;262}}

The statue became a tourist attraction in spite of being a [[cult image]], and a patron of the Knidians. [[Nicomedes I of Bithynia]] offered to pay off the enormous debts of the city of Knidos in exchange for the statue, but the Knidians rejected his offer. The statue would have been [[polychromed]],<ref name="Havelock p.13">Havelock, p. 13. Pliny recounts that Praxiteles valued most the sculptures of his that were painted by the hand of the Athenian Nikias, although he does not specifically link Nikias to the Knidian Aphrodite</ref> and was so lifelike that it even aroused men sexually, as witnessed by the tradition that a young man broke into the temple at night and attempted to copulate with the statue, leaving a stain on it. An attendant priestess told visitors that upon being discovered, he was so ashamed that he hurled himself over a cliff near the edge of the temple.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|chapter=Revealing Aphrodite|title=Understanding Greek Sculpture|last=Spivey|first=Nigel|pages=173–186}}</ref> This story is recorded in the dialogue ''[[Amores (Lucian)|Erotes]]'' (section 15), traditionally attributed to [[Lucian of Samosata]].<ref>See also the Hellenistic story of [[Pygmalion (mythology)|Pygmalion]].</ref>

==Influence==
The Knidian Aphrodite has not survived.  Possibly the statue was removed to [[Constantinople]] (modern [[Istanbul]]), where it was housed in the [[Palace of Lausus]]; in 475, the palace burned and the statue was lost. It was one of the most widely copied statues in the ancient world, so a general idea of the appearance of the statue can be gleaned from the descriptions and replicas that have survived to the modern day.  For a time in 1969, the archaeologist [[Iris Love]] thought she had found the only surviving fragments of the original statue, which are now in storage at the [[British Museum]].  The prevailing opinion of archaeologists is that the fragment in question is not of the ''Knidia'', but of a different statue.

*Probably the most faithful replica of the statue is the [[Colonna Venus]] conserved in the [[Vatican Museums|Museo Pio-Clementino]], part of the collections of the [[Vatican Museums]].
*The Kaufmann Head, found at [[Tralles]], purchased from the C. M. Kaufmann collection, Berlin, and conserved in the [[Musée du Louvre]], is thought to be a very faithful Roman reproduction of the head of the Knidian Aphrodite.<ref>"The head from Martres Tolosanes and, especially, the so-called Kaufmann appear to me the best extant replicas." (Charles Waldstein, "A Head of Aphrodite, Probably from the Eastern Pediment of the Parthenon, at Holkham Hall", ''The Journal of Hellenic Studies'' '''33''' (1913:276–295 [283]); "general agreement on the genuineness of the Kaufmann Collection Aphrodite as a replica of the Cnidian Aphrodite" (Robert I. Edenbaum, "Panthea: Lucian and Ideal Beauty", ''The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism"'' '''25'''.1 (Autumn 1966:65–700 [69]</ref>
*At [[Hadrian's Villa]] near [[Tivoli, Italy|Tivoli]] in [[Italy]], there is a second-century recreation of the temple at Knidos with a fragmentary replica of the Aphrodite standing at the center of it, generally matching descriptions in ancient accounts of how the original was displayed.
* At the [[Prado Museum]].

As well as more or less faithful copies, the Aphrodite of Knidos also influenced various variations, which include: 
*the [[Capitoline Venus]] ([[Capitoline Museums]], [[Rome]])
*the [[Barberini Venus]]
*the [[Borghese Venus]]
*the [[Satala Aphrodite]] (British Museum), considered a replica by [[Zhores Khachatryan]]<ref>{{cite journal|last=Khachatryan|first=Zhores|authorlink=Zhores Khachatryan |title=Անահիտ դիցուհու պաշտամունքն ու պատկերագրությունը Հայաստանում և նրա աղերսները հելլենիստական աշխարհի հետ |trans-title=The Cult and Iconography of Goddess Anahit in Armenia and Its Relations with the Hellenistic World|journal=[[Patma-Banasirakan Handes]]|date=1985|issue=1|url=http://hpj.asj-oa.am/4209/|language=hy|page=128}}</ref> 
*the Aphrodite of Melos (the ''[[Venus de Milo]]'', Louvre, Paris)
*the [[Venus de' Medici]] ([[Uffizi]] Gallery, [[Florence]])
*the [[Esquiline Venus]] (Capitoline Museum, Rome)
*Venus of the Esquiline type (Louvre, Paris)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://collections.louvre.fr/|title=Louvre site des collections|website=collections.louvre.fr}}</ref>
*the [[Crouching Venus]] (Louvre, Paris and British Museum, London)
*the [[Callipygian Venus|Aphrodite Kallipygos]] (aka Venus Kalypygos, [[Museo Archeologico Nazionale Napoli]], [[Naples]])
*the Venus Victrix (Uffizi Gallery)
*[[:Image:Sommer, Giorgio (1834-1891) - Venere Urania (Firenze) ca. 1860.jpg|Venus Urania]] (Uffizi Gallery)
*The [[Mazarin Venus]], named after [[Cardinal Mazarin]] (now in the [[J. Paul Getty Museum]])
*An example with added figures of Pan and Cupid at the [[Athens National Archaeological Museum]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theoi.com/Gallery/S10.4.html|title=Aphrodite & Pan – Ancient Greek Statue|website=www.theoi.com}}</ref>
*The [[Venus Felix (sculpture)|Venus Felix]] at the [[Vatican Museums]], a possible variation of the type.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theoi.com/Gallery/S10.8.html|title=Venus Felix – Ancient Greco-Roman Statue|website=www.theoi.com}}</ref>

<gallery mode="packed" heights="250">
File:Colonna-Venus-front.jpg|The [[Colonna Venus]]
File:Venus de Medici.png|The [[Venus de' Medici]], of the variant ''Venus Pudica'' type where both hands cover the body.
File:Aphrodite of Cnidus 2.jpg|Back view of the Aphrodite of Knidos, Roman copy, 4th century AD
File:Aphrodite von Knidos.jpg|Aphrodite of Knidos, Roman copy, 4th century AD
File:Satala Aphrodite Yerevan 2025.jpg|[[Satala Aphrodite]]
</gallery>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

== References ==
{{refbegin}}
*Theodor Kraus. ''Die Aphrodite von Knidos''. Walter Dorn Verlag, Bremen/Hannover, 1957.
*Leonard Closuit.  ''L'Aphrodite de Cnide: Etude typologique des principales répliques antiques de l'Aphrodite de Cnide de Praxitèle''.  Éditions Pillet – Martigny, 1978.
* {{cite book|last=Funke|first=Melissa|title=Phryne: A Life in Fragments|year=2024|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic|location=London|isbn=9781350371873}}
*Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny.  ''Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture, 1500–1900''.  Yale University Press, New Haven/London, 1981.
* {{cite book |first=Christine Mitchell|last=Havelock |title=The Aphrodite of Knidos and her Successors: a Historical Review of the Female Nude in Greek Art |date= 1995  |isbn=0-472-10585-X|publisher=University of Michigan Press |location=Ann Arbor |url=https://archive.org/details/aphroditeofknido0000have}}
* Cyril Mango, "Antique Statuary and the Byzantine Beholder", Dumbarton Oaks Papers 17 (1963), pp.&nbsp;53–75.
* {{cite book|last=Montel|first=Sophie|chapter=The Architectural Setting of the Knidian Aphrodite|year=2010|title=Brill's Companion to Aphrodite|editor1-last=Smith|editor1-first=Amy C.|editor2-last=Pickup|editor2-first=Sadie}}
* {{cite journal|last=Seaman|first=Kristen|title=Retrieving the Original Aphrodite of Knidos|journal=Atti della Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Rendiconti Classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche|series=9|volume=15|issue=3|year=2004|url=https://www.academia.edu/29691770/_Retrieving_the_Original_Aphrodite_of_Knidos_Atti_della_Accademia_Nazionale_dei_Lincei_Rendiconti_Classe_di_scienze_morali_storiche_e_filologiche_Ser_9_Vol_15_2004_531_94}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
* {{commonscatinline|Aphrodite of Cnidus|Aphrodite of Knidos}}
* James Grout: [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/greece/hetairai/aphrodite.html ''Aphrodite of Cnidus''], part of the ''Encyclopædia Romana''

{{Praxiteles}}
{{Sculptures of Aphrodite}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aphrodite Of Cnidus}}
[[Category:Sculptures by Praxiteles]]
[[Category:Lost sculptures]]
[[Category:Cnidian Venuses| ]]
[[Category:Nude sculptures of women]]
[[Category:Sculptures of Venus]]
[[Category:Cult images]]