Greek Hellenistic Marble Female Head - Aphrodite

Greece, Hellenistic, ca. 4th to 3rd century BCE. Carved in the round, a lovely marble head of a female, perhaps Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, depicted with her head turned slightly toward the right, carved with beautiful facial features and a wavy, centrally-parted, upswept coiffure - bound in a bow-shaped chignon over the nape of her neck. The goddess' elegant, oval face is sensitively modeled so as to present a naturalistic visage characteristic of the Hellenistic period with a rounded forehead, large and generously lidded almond-shaped eyes, a fine brow line that rises gracefully at the center and merges with the bridge of her nose, a soft rounded chin, and full, bow-shaped lips. Truly life-like, despite the goddess' mythical status, this naturalistic visage demonstrates that the sculptor was virtuosic in his ability to bring marble to life! Size: 4.125" H (10.5 cm); 8" H (20.3 cm) on included custom stand.

Aphrodite's sublime beauty legendarily inspired much rivalry among the gods, not to mention countless depictions throughout art history, among the most famous, the Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" (1484-86), Baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens' "Judgement of Paris" (ca. 1636), and of course, Attic sculptor Praxiteles's "Aphrodite of Knidos" (ca. 360-330 BCE) and the equally famous "Lely's Venus" (ca. 100 to 199 CE).

Provenance: private East Coast, USA collection; ex-William Froelich, New York and California in the US and Saba in the Caribbean, purchased by Mr. Froelich in the 1970s

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#141467
Condition Report: Old losses to neck line and lower peripheries of coiffure. Normal surface wear with abrasions in areas. Scattered mineral deposits. Feint striations at back of coiffure, on one side of chignon is a long inclusion/vein in the stone, on the other side is a fissure.