Venus de Milo

Discovered

The bust of the statue is put at the day in April 1820 with Milo, an island of the Aegean Sea, by a peasant named Yorgos Kentrotas in the search of stones to build a wall around its field. By chance, a pupil naval officer French, Olivier Voutier, attends the discovery. Impassioned by archeology, then a recent discipline, it encourages the peasant to continue to dig. Appear then the lower part of the statue and some fragments belonging obviously to the statue, like the node of the chignon;

a fragment of arm;
a fragment of front armlever with part of the palm of the hand;
a fragment of left foot;
two pillars hermaïques, then joined by a third: one with a head of Hermes and two others with a head of Héraclès;
two registered blocks, which will be then joined by a third.

Voutier then makes pressure on the consul so that the French State buys the statue. On its side, Jules Dumont d' Urville, then sign of vessel, also saw the statue and alarm the marquis of Rivière, ambassador of France near the Sublime Door. This one dispatches an embassy secretary on the spot, however that a Greek dignitary working with the arsenal of Constantinople, also endeavors him to obtain the statue. At the time when the boat of the French diplomat penetrates in roads of Milo, the statue is charged on a Turkish boat to be offered to the sultan. After an intervention in urgency of Louis Brest and long talks, the statue is unloaded and finally bought with personal capacity by the marquis of Rivière. It joined initially the embassy from France to Constantinople, then sets out again in boat, escorted by Rivière in person, towards the island of Milo, probably with an aim of finding the arms. It arrives finally at Toulon in November 1820 and on March 1st, 1821, Rivière the offer with Louis XVIII, which makes of it at once gift with the Musée of Louvre.

Description

The statue represents a woman larger than natural, upright, resting against the right leg and the slightly bent left leg, the foot (disappeared) exceeding Plinthe. The top of the body is stripped; bottom is covered with a Himation rolled around the hips. The hair is raised in a Chignon maintained by a stringcourse, from which three wicks escape falling on the nape of the neck.

It consists of two blocks in Marbre of Paros which meet in the middle of the pad of the himation. It is not a question of the result of an accident, but of a voluntary process, current at the time hellenistic, aiming at facilitating the transport of the statues. The two blocks in the beginning were connected by metal pins located on the end of the hips; they were sealed places from there by Plomb cast in channels whose openings are in the higher section of the statue. Each of the two sections also includes/understands marble parts inserted into the level of the hips. It is probably about an ancient repair. The lower glare of the left hip saw its surface improved with the chisel in 1871: the statue, dismounted and placed in sure place at the time of the Commune, had been badly re-installed and the glare formed covered, that one endeavoured to level. The missing foot also has a very regular surface, which made still conclude there with a reported part. Lastly, the top of the back presents localized defects of surface.

Still visible clamp holes on the statue show that it was crowned of a Diadème (over the ribbon) and that it carried earrings and a bracelet to the right-hand man. Contrary for the use of the time, the statue was not restored at the time of its entry in the collections of Louvre. The left foot was a restored time plasters some before being withdrawn. The only modern interventions remaining at present are the sticking together of the chignon and the plaster complement of glares at the end of the nose, on the lower lip and the right big toe; the plinth also was the subject of a recovery.

Attribution

A basic element found at the same time as Venus carries the inscription: “… andros, wire of Ménidès, Antioche of the Meander”. We have two drawings, carried out of them one by Voutier, the other by an artist named Debay for Jacques Louis David. The first represents the fragment registered with one of the pillars hermaïques at the same time discovered as the statue; the second connects the fragment to the broken plinth of Venus, and shows clearly on his surface a upper square cavity intended without null doubts to receive a brought back element.

The sculptor, Alexandros or Agesandros, is unknown in addition. He is trying to see there the signature of the author of Venus, but connection between the base and the statue is challenged as of its arrival in France by Quatremère de Quincy, one of the most eminent French archeologists of the time, which enables him to attach work to the school of Praxitèle - attribution unquestionably more prestigious. The count de Clarac, conservative of the antiques to the museum of Louvre, leans for its part in favor of a nontraditional original, but regards the signature as a restoration. Furtwängler is the first to attach work to the registered base; on this basis and considerations stylistics, it goes back work to 150 - 50 av. J. - C. and proposes the bringing together with the Venus de Capoue , copy Roman of an original of fourth century BC Malheureusement, the fragment disappeared from the reserves of Louvre to an unspecified date, which does not allow any unquestionable conclusion.

Interpretation

The statue was interpreted like a Tyché, or Was intended city: if the hand holding an apple (in Greek μῆλον / mễlon ) belongs well to the statue, it would be a pun on the name of the city (in Greek Μῆλος / Mễlos ). One also evoked Artémis carrying a arc, a Danaïde holding a Amphore, a Nike with the trumpet, a Amphitrite holding the Trident of her husband Poséidon or a playing MUSE of the Lyre. However, the most current assumption, which is also that of the first admirors of the statue. ” If Venus de Milo belongs well to the niche, Bacchios would be its dédicant.

Variations, diversions

The notoriety of Venus de Milo pushed many artists to be inspired some, quote inter alia:

Salvador Dali: Venus de Milo with the drawers ,
Arman,
Etogo,
Hyvrard: Bicycle of Washout .
Jim Dines,

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