Mars and Venus

myminifactory

This group statue is a proportional model in pink plaster to NMSk1113; this model is housed in the Orangery in the grounds of Ulriksdal Palace, while the marble is on display at the Nationalmuseum. The artwork portrays the union of Mars and Venus, a popular theme in philosophy and art. In Greek mythology, Ares and Aphrodite's adultery was exposed to ridicule when Hephaestus caught them in the act using magical snares. Scenes of Mars and Venus in Roman art often ignore the adulterous implications of their relationship; instead, the union is romanticized. In funerary art, husbands and wives would portray themselves as the passionate divine couple. The union of deities representing Love and War lends itself to allegory. Renaissance philosopher Marsilio Ficino notes that "only Venus dominates Mars, and he never dominates her." Neoclassical art contradicts this notion, just like in this sculpture, where Venus swoons under the impact of masculine aggression. The marble version (NMSk 1113) can be downloaded from here. These 3D scans were created with an Artec Eva to produce a digital representation as close to the original as possible. However, these scans are not duplicates; due to inaccessible areas and other factors, deviations from the original may occur. Photography - CC BY-SA 4.0