Roman Venus Statuette

2nd-3rd century AD. A bronze figure of Venus (Greek Aphrodite), her hair elaborately dressed with ringlets to the shoulders, with bun and long braids falling over them, naked from hips up, her left covering the breast and the right hand the pubis holding a loosely draped cloak (chlamys) around her hips exposing buttocks and pudendum, standing upon a circular pedestal, decorated with concentric circles. See for similar typology Rolland, H. Bronzes Antiques de Haute Provence, Paris, 1965, item 76. 310 grams, 14cm (5 1/2"). Property of a South London collector; previously acquired on the European art market 1970-1980. Venus was one of the most popular deities to be represented in small scale sculpture for centuries across the Mediterranean world, and one of the most common to be found in household shrines. The goddess was not only associated with love, but also with fertility in both humans and nature, and was regarded as a protector of the crops under her Etruscan name of Turan. At the beginning she was even associated with the war and very often represented with a spear in hand. She was also considered to be a mother goddess who protected her devotees under the name of Venus Genetrix. According the Greco-Roman mythology she was the mother of Aeneas, the Trojan hero from whom Julius Caesar claimed descent, and was thus the progenitor of the whole Julio-Claudian dynasty.
Condition Report: Very fine condition.