Aphrodite (400–200 BCE): Art, History and Details

Aphrodite (400–200 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This nude figurine was likely inspired by the Aphrodite of Knidos by Praxiteles, a work that spawned countless reproductions of varying sizes in different media. Created from inexpensive terra cotta clay, this Aphrodite might have been commissioned as a votive offering by a person of modest means.

Object facts

• Title: Aphrodite
• Date: 400–200 BCE
• Culture: Greece
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: terracotta
• Dimensions: Overall: 43.5 cm (17 1/8 in.)
• Collection: GR - Greek
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1927.489

A detail from the museum

This Aphrodite may be admiring her reflection in a mirror once held in her left hand.

Collection credit

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust

Further reading listed by the museum

• R. H. “A Figurine of Aphrodite.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 14, no. 7 (1927): 120–27.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1928.
• Doshi, Saryu. India and Greece, Connections and Parallels. Bombay: Marg Publications, 1985.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.