Venus of Arles at The Louvre, Paris

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The Venus of Arles stands at a majestic 1.94 metres tall, its stunning beauty captivating visitors to the Musée du Louvre. Crafted from Hymettus marble, this breathtaking sculpture dates back to the end of the 1st century BC. Some art historians believe it may be a copy of Praxiteles' Aphrodite of Thespiae, commissioned by the enigmatic courtesan Phryne. In the 2nd century AD, Pausanias mentioned a group at Thespiae in Boeotia featuring Cupid, Phryne and Aphrodite, showcasing the Praxitelean style. The head's resemblance to the Cnidian Aphrodite, another masterpiece by Praxiteles, is striking. If we consider the original Aphrodite of Thespiae as a work from his youth, it would have been created in the 360s BC, preceding the fully naked nude of his later Cnidian Aphrodite. The Venus of Arles was discovered at the Roman theatre in Arles, where it lay in several pieces. The sculptural program at Arles was likely executed by Greek artisans in Italy. As Venus was the divine ancestor of the gens Julia, Arles' loyalty to Caesar during the Civil War earned it numerous rewards. A semi-nude heroic statue of Augustus dominated the sculptural program of the Arles theatre. In 1651, workmen stumbled upon the Venus while digging a well, with the head surfacing at a depth of six feet. Further excavations revealed no additional fragments. The statue was gifted to Louis XIV in 1681 for display in the Galerie des Glaces of Versailles, but further excavations were fruitless. Seized from the royal collection during the Revolution, it has been on permanent display at the Musée du Louvre since its inception. A copy can be seen in the municipal building in Arles. François Girardon's restoration added attributes to make the sculpture more definitively a Venus: an apple in her right hand and a mirror in her left. However, a 1911 discovery revealed that these additions significantly altered the original piece. The extent of Girardon's transformative restorations is evident in the refinishing of surfaces and slimming of the figure. The head, although its edges do not directly join with the torso except at one point, belongs with the body – an important distinction, as it is the only sculpture of this model to retain its head. The Praxitelean head is comparable to his Aphrodite of Cnidus, while the bracelet on her left arm is original, a distinctive trait of the goddess seen in the Cnidian Aphrodite.