Sculpture
Aphrodite Anadyomene
Hellenistic
replica: from Alva Museum Replicas, New York
permanent loan: from the Dept. of Art and Art History, University of Saskatchewan
date of the original: 1st century BC
provenance of the original: black basalt version now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
description: Torso of the Aphrodite of Cnidos type. Reduced black resin replica, on a variegated marble stand; unknown original of granite. On base: height 50 cm, width 22 cm, depth 15 cm.
This Aphrodite is called Anadyomene, or Aphrodite Rising from the Foam, or The Birth of Venus. She is a reduced copy of a Roman version of the original Greek prototype and, of course, a visible progeny of the Aphrodite of Cnidos, though the original is shown as stepping out of or into the bath. This Aphrodite stood on a dolphin, or porpoise, whose tail fins can still be seen at the back of her left leg.
(See also: Aphrodite of Arles; Aphrodite of Melos; Crouching Aphrodite.)