Aphrodite of Knidos
Italian School
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
100 AD - 200 AD - 1701 - 1760
Materials
coade stone & marble
Measurements
1450 x 500 mm
Place of origin
Italy
Collection
Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire
NT 109015
Summary
Marble on Coade Stone pedestal, Aphrodite of Knidos, Italian School, antique, with extensive 18th-century restoration. A statue of the Aphrodite of Knidos type, assembled of antique and 18th-century marble parts joined together with marble fixings; mounted on a Coade Stone pedestal decorated with swags and garlanded roundels and a dentilated rim. Aphrodite (Venus) is depicted in full-length, nude, at her ritual bath. She stands in contrapposto, bearing her weight on the proper right leg, and looks out to proper left. She holds a length of drapery which falls in a swag across her body. The drapery is cast over her proper left arm, bent at the elbow, and falls down by her left side; she holds part of the fabric up with her proper right hand to cover her modesty. The drapery trails over a vase on the ground next to Aphrodite's proper right knee. The torso and a fragment of the drapery are antique; the remaining parts (limbs, head, drapery, urn) are modern. The Aphrodite of Knidos is a lost cult statue of the 4th century BC attributed to the Attic sculptor Praxiteles. It established a canon for sculptural depictions of the female nude and led to many antique variants and derivatives; one of the most celebrated is the Colonna Knidia in the Vatican.
Full description
The statue is described as 'A Grecian Venus' in a handwritten inventory of sculpture and statuary produced by Nathaniel Curzon (1726-1804) in around 1760 (MS, Kedleston Archive). The list was drawn up during Robert Adam's transformation of Kedleston Hall and also records how Curzon intended to display his collection across the newly designed state rooms. The 'Grecian Venus' and a statue of Mercury, then the only statues in marble Curzon owned, were intended for the garden. For the sum of 130 guineas Curzon acquired both marbles in January 1759 through Joseph Wilton, the sculptor who procured all the Florentine casts in the Marble Hall and who sculpted the Medici Lion (NT 109019) for the garden (John Kenworthy-Browne 1993, p. 252). The statue of Mercury is now departed. Alice Rylance-Watson 2019
Provenance
Purchased by Nathaniel Curzon (1726-1804) in January 1759, with a statue of Mercury (now departed), from Joseph Wilton (1722-1803), for 130 guineas; identifiable as 'A Grecian Venus' in Nathaniel Curzon, 'List of Statues I have', c. 1760 (MS, Kedleston Archive) and under list of 'Marble Statues' on verso; purchased with part of the contents of Kedleston with the aid of the National Heritage Memorial Fund in 1987 when the house and park were given to the National Trust by Francis Curzon, 3rd Viscount Scarsdale (1924-2000).
Credit line
Kedleston Hall, The Scarsdale Collection (acquired with the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund and transferred to The National Trust in 1987)
Makers and roles
Italian School, sculptor