Crouching Venus

myminifactory

The Rising Aphrodite is a Hellenistic masterpiece of Aphrodite caught off guard during her bath routine. Typically, this iconic type portrays the Goddess crouching low to the ground with her right knee bent, her head turned sharply to the right and, in some versions, reaching over her left shoulder with her right arm to cover her breasts. The earliest recorded reference to a sculpture of this kind appears in Pliny the Elder's Natural History (book 36, section 4), where he describes "Aphrodite washing herself, created by Daedalus," located in the Temple of Jupiter Stator. Due to numerous ancient versions of this sculpture existing, it becomes challenging to make accurate archival identifications; however, some, like this one, feature a water jar and/or an additional figure of Eros. This particular sculpture is a heavily restored version of the original Rising Aphrodite housed at The Louvre in Paris (Ma5, SMK cast KAS357). The handprint of Cupid has been removed and her head and arms were added. This work loosely draws inspiration from the Cnidian Aphrodite by Praxiteles. Image source: Wikipedia. If you create new work using this model and wish to share it with us, please drop an email at web@smk.dk or stw@myminifactory.com. This scan was produced in collaboration between The Statens Museum for Kunst and Scan the World for the SMK-Open project. Every model created from this initiative is available under an open-source license. Scanner - Artec Eva