Venus Rising
 Statuette of Aphrodite (Venus) |
 Venus Rising from the Sea (Venus Anadyomene) |
 Venus Rising from the Sea ('Venus Anadyomene') |
 Venus and Cupid |
 Drawing of a Statue of Venus with a Dolphin (The Medici Venus) |
 The Tub |
 The Birth of Venus |
![La Représentation [Representation]](http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media_collection/7/GMA%203546.jpg) La Représentation [Representation] |
 Bather Wringing her Hair |
 Venus Anadyomene (after Titian) |
Antonio Lombardo about 1458-1516
Venus Rising from the Sea (Venus Anadyomene)
1508-16Representations of the goddess of love wringing her hair may have been inspired by ancient Greek sculptures (anadyomene is the Greek word for rising). The subject was also central to a famous lost painting by Apelles, the most celebrated painter of ancient Greece. Reflecting its debt to such ancient sources, this Renaissance Venetian carving is inscribed with a Latin tag. It means: "Naked Venus wrings spray from her hair". This tag leaves us in no doubt as to the sculpture's subject matter. This is useful, because the goddess's symbolic scallop shell (partly hidden by her left foot) is even less obvious than the one in Titian's picture.
Antonio Lombardo was part of a leading family of sculptors which had settled in Venice during the 1460s. Originally from Lombardy in the north of Italy, Antonio's father Pietro won a number of highly prestigious architectural and sculptural commissions in Venice and nearby Padua. Antonio worked on these projects, together with his father and also with his brother, Tullio. The sculptures made by the Lombardo family reveal a keen interest in classical antiquity; Antonio and Tullio Lombardo are particularly known for the classicising marble reliefs and busts which they produced. Between 1506 and his death in 1516, Antonio worked in Ferrara and sculpted a number of these classically inspired reliefs for Alfonso d'Este, the Duke of Ferrara.
Beauty
Books of beauty secrets existed in sixteenth-century Venice. They contained recipes claiming to give women white teeth, clear skin, a beautiful face and long, fair hair. Beauty was an advantage in an age when women's opportunities were very limited.
- Medium Marble relief
- Size 40.6 x 25.1 cm
- Location London, Victoria & Albert Museum
- Do they look like real women to you or not? What is it about them that makes you think this?
- What words can you think of to describe the women depicted in these art works?
- Which Venus do you find the most beautiful - and why?
- How do these art works compare to modern images of beautiful women?
- Who would you say has "goddess status" today, and why?
- Who do you think would have owned these works of art when they were made and where do you think they would have been displayed?
- How does the lack of eye contact with most of these Venuses make you feel when you look at them?
- Why do you think that artists such as Titian were so interested in ancient art and literature?
- Why do you think artists have chosen to portray female nudes so often in the past?
- How do the twentieth-century Venuses compare to the older ones?
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- © Victoria & Albert Museum