Aphrodite Torso (c. 200–1 BCE): Art, History and Details

Aphrodite Torso (c. 200–1 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This torso can be identified through its nudity and pose as the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite. Based on the now-lost Aphrodite of Knidos, a revolutionary marble sculpture created by Praxiteles of Athens in the mid-300s BCE, this sculpture belongs to a popular Greek and Roman type showing the goddess at her bath. With hips slightly shifted, she stood in a relaxed posture with most of her weight on one leg, probably with one hand modestly covering her pubic region and the other shielding her breasts or holding drapery. Alternatively, one or both hands may have tended to her wet hair, some of which falls over her neck and upper back.

Object facts

• Title: Aphrodite Torso
• Date: c. 200–1 BCE
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: Thasian marble
• Dimensions: Overall: 66.3 x 36.2 cm (26 1/8 x 14 1/4 in.)
• Collection: GR - Greek
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1988.9

A detail from the museum

This torso is based on the Aphrodite of Knidos, a Greek original by the master sculptor Praxiteles.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Bachstitz, K. W. The Bachstitz Gallery Collection. Band II: Sammlungen der Galerie Bachstitz: Antike Kunst). Berlin: [A. Frisch], 1921.
• Schefold, Karl. Meisterwerke griechischer Kunst. (Ausstellung Kunsthalle Basel, 18 June - 13 September 1960.) Basel: B. Schwabe, 1960.
• Antikenmuseum Basel, Robert Käppeli, and Ernst Berger. Kunstwerke der Antike. [Basel]: [Antikenmuseum], 1963.

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.