Speaker 1: Hey, I'm welcome to the short stuff. I'm josh, there's chuck.
Speaker 1: Neither one of us have four arms, which means that
Speaker 1: this is the short stuff about Venus de Mila. Let's go.
Speaker 1: That's right. Who resides in the louver, right? I think
Speaker 1: since eighteen twenty one when Louis the what is that
Speaker 1: eight No, yeah, the eighteen man. You threw me off.
Speaker 1: Always forget how to read those. It's been a while. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Louis the eighteenth donated Venus de Mila, one of the
Speaker 1: most famous dare I say statues in the world. Yeah. Also,
Speaker 1: just as a little a side chuck, if you ever
Speaker 1: kind of get tripped up by something like that, you're
Speaker 1: talking to somebody, just swap it out for like a
Speaker 1: word like Louis the Magnificent, but say it authoritatively and
Speaker 1: the person will think that that's the name for that
Speaker 1: particular right, Louis the Overeater. So yeah, So the Venus
Speaker 1: to my Hello first ended up in Paris in eighty one.
Speaker 1: Apparently that was um that was a really good timing
Speaker 1: because the nation of France was kind of in the
Speaker 1: doll drums as far as art is concerned. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a gentleman that will make a couple of appearances
Speaker 1: in this episode. His name is Andrew Stewart, and uh,
Speaker 1: I think he's a professor right art art historian and professor, Yeah,
Speaker 1: professor of Greek Studies at UC Berkeley emeritus too. Oh well, yeah,
Speaker 1: the guy knows what he's talking about. Yeah. So apparently France, uh,
Speaker 1: they needed their national pride kind of picked up, and
Speaker 1: apparently Venus went a long way toward doing that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because Napoleon had sacked a bunch of countries and city
Speaker 1: states and nations art collections plundered, and after the French Revolution,
Speaker 1: Um well no, that was way after the French Revolution,
Speaker 1: after Napoleon was banished, We'll say that France had to
Speaker 1: give back a lot of that art. So the Louver
Speaker 1: kind of got sacked in verse. And then also the
Speaker 1: big dumb rival England, from France's vantage point of course,
Speaker 1: not mine, had just acquired the Elgin Marbles, which meant
Speaker 1: that they had a some sculpture by the greatest sculpture
Speaker 1: of antiquity known to humanity. Faddists, Yeah, I got it. Um.
Speaker 1: So the Venus de Milo comes along and they're like this, this,
Speaker 1: this is the most important thing I ever found. Let's
Speaker 1: um bandy it about as much as possible as such. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the whole thing with Venus de Milo is sort
Speaker 1: of the mystery surrounding the origins and who the artist
Speaker 1: was and who maybe she had been she may have been,
Speaker 1: and and of course the big question is two questions,
Speaker 1: what happened to those arms and what will those arms
Speaker 1: are doing right before they were broken off, which I
Speaker 1: have to admit I'd never thought of until reading this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just never thought of her arms were doing anything
Speaker 1: of note, it's kind of weird now that think about it.
Speaker 1: But the funny thing is is, like you said, she
Speaker 1: shrouded in mystery as to her identity. But the one
Speaker 1: thing we know for certain she is not is Venus,
Speaker 1: the goddess of love to Rome. She was Greek and
Speaker 1: produced by the Greeks, so she would have been aphrodite
Speaker 1: at best, but we're not even sure she's aphrodite. She
Speaker 1: could be a number of other people that have been proposed,
Speaker 1: or a number of other goddesses. It didn't even have
Speaker 1: to be a goddess, right, No, it didn't. I saw
Speaker 1: that she could have been an everyday person. But also, um,
Speaker 1: she was found on me losch Uh, the Greek island
Speaker 1: which was really engaged in the sea as far as
Speaker 1: trade and fishing and all that. So some people have
Speaker 1: supposed that she was um actually Amphra Tidy in Amphatidy
Speaker 1: is there an r in there, thank you chuck, um,
Speaker 1: that she's the goddess of the sea, Poseidon's old lady.
Speaker 1: As far as iikers would say, Yeah, and in Venus
Speaker 1: was always thought to be classical, but I think they
Speaker 1: did enough digging and found that she was actually neo classical,
Speaker 1: uh and not classical, although they say they sometimes still
Speaker 1: refer to her as a masterpiece of the classical classical genre. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because she again kind of carries France's national ego on
Speaker 1: her shoulders. Um. So the idea that she was you know,
Speaker 1: created by some unknown master far back in antiquity, um,
Speaker 1: in the classical period is is kind of you know,
Speaker 1: part of France's pride in this thing. But supposedly, yeah,
Speaker 1: they figured out there was a German archaeologist named Adolph
Speaker 1: seriously fort Wrangler, I love that man's last name, foot
Speaker 1: thinker who that's even better, who basically said, yeah, she's
Speaker 1: she's neo classical. You can tell from how she's dressed.
Speaker 1: But then I guess they also when she was found,
Speaker 1: they discovered a pedestal that had the sculptor's signature UM
Speaker 1: that showed that she was very clearly created UM by
Speaker 1: a guy named Alexandro's of Magnesia, not to be confused
Speaker 1: with the milk of Magnesia, but that would be. But
Speaker 1: then they lost it. They conveniently lost this pedestal and said, no, no,
Speaker 1: this this is clearly created by one of the masters.
Speaker 1: We just don't know which one, right, So good set up.
Speaker 1: I think we should take a little break and talk
Speaker 1: about those arms. I'm dina know about the arms right
Speaker 1: after this. Well, now we're on the road, driving in
Speaker 1: your truck. Want to learn a thing or two from
Speaker 1: Josh can chuck it stuff you should know, all right? Arms? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So again, never thought that her arms were doing anything.
Speaker 1: I think I just assumed she was being like like, hey,
Speaker 1: how's it going, I'm holding my hands out here, yeah,
Speaker 1: or maybe like I don't know kind of thing um.
Speaker 1: But there there has been a lot of debate about
Speaker 1: what was going on with her arms. Apparently, at some point,
Speaker 1: an arm that would fit this statue, the venus de
Speaker 1: milo Um an arm holding an apple was found, and
Speaker 1: they think it's possible. Some people think it's possible that
Speaker 1: that was originally attached to the venus to Milo. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and we should also point out there were some other
Speaker 1: things missing from the original statue, like originally she supposedly
Speaker 1: had metal jewelry bracelet earrings in a headband because they're
Speaker 1: little fixation holes on those places in her body. And
Speaker 1: they think that she might have also been painted at
Speaker 1: one point and now that had it away, and then
Speaker 1: the arms were I guess maybe some people might think
Speaker 1: if they never looked into it, that you never had
Speaker 1: the arms, but they were broken off because you can
Speaker 1: see where that there were the dowel rods and everything.
Speaker 1: Because it wasn't carved as one big piece. You know,
Speaker 1: these arms were put on afterward. But um, yeah, like
Speaker 1: you said, they found an arm with an apple, and
Speaker 1: some people are like, well, yeah, she was holding an
Speaker 1: apple on one of those hands, which actually fits. There's
Speaker 1: a Greek myth called the Judgment of Paris about a
Speaker 1: mythological um contest between Aphrodite, the goddess of love, hera
Speaker 1: Zeus's wife, and Athena, the goddess of war and um
Speaker 1: this contest between them was won by Aphrodite and the
Speaker 1: prize was an apple, So this would have kind of
Speaker 1: commented on the judgment of Paris and Aphrodite winning this.
Speaker 1: And apparently it's symbolic of like the choice that that
Speaker 1: people have in life, or that men back in ancient
Speaker 1: Greece had right. So, um, your your choice in life
Speaker 1: was between love, war and politics, Aphrodite Athena or hera
Speaker 1: um and the Aphrodite one that people wanted to they
Speaker 1: wanted they wanted to live with their heart. That's what
Speaker 1: the statue symbolize in that sense. Yeah, and that's one
Speaker 1: take on it. Um. I like this other one a lot.
Speaker 1: This woman Elizabeth Wayland Barber, who's professor Emerita of Archaeology
Speaker 1: and Linguistics at Occidental College, which I used to live near.
Speaker 1: So I'm all about that. Um. She says, you know
Speaker 1: what I think, And and she even did like this
Speaker 1: three D renderings to sort of prove her point. She said,
Speaker 1: I think she was a regular lady who was weaving
Speaker 1: um thread. And she said, if you look at the
Speaker 1: angle of the back and and ladies were doing all
Speaker 1: this textile work back then, if you look at her
Speaker 1: positioning and the way she was leaning and even where
Speaker 1: exactly she was looking. It looks to me like she
Speaker 1: was spinning thread. And they if you, you know, if
Speaker 1: you look online, she has their pictures of her three
Speaker 1: D rendered spinning the thread and it looks real enough
Speaker 1: to me for someone who knows nothing about spent the
Speaker 1: thread spinning. Well. Also, not only that, apparently the musculature
Speaker 1: of her shoulders and arms, um, would be about what
Speaker 1: you would expect for somebody who was spinning. She makes
Speaker 1: a weird position. Yeah, well, she makes a really good case.
Speaker 1: But also she this doesn't even need to be a
Speaker 1: statue of just an ordinary person because apparently she says
Speaker 1: Aphrodite was also the goddess of spinning, well, the goddess
Speaker 1: of procreation and love. Um, so this would fit still anyway. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a good point. Um. I did see another thing
Speaker 1: that said, you know, from the angle of her back
Speaker 1: that they said, it's one of those things where retroactically
Speaker 1: you look back and it's like, you know, did Mona
Speaker 1: Lisa have a disease or something? And they said, did
Speaker 1: Venus de Milo have some sort of spinal condition? Because
Speaker 1: when you look at the way her back is twisted
Speaker 1: and angled. It is a very irregular um route for
Speaker 1: the spine. But you know it's also a statue. Is
Speaker 1: it one of those things that would be that would
Speaker 1: be explained by the spinning position? Well, I mean it,
Speaker 1: she says. It matches what could have been a spinning position.
Speaker 1: But a spinning position could have been hard on your back. Maybe,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I would guess it would be hard
Speaker 1: on your back for sure. It doesn't sound like something
Speaker 1: I'd wanted to so the Venus de Milo. If you
Speaker 1: haven't ever seen it, go see it. It's pretty neat.
Speaker 1: It's in the loop. You can get there pretty easily,
Speaker 1: especially if you're vaccinated against COVID nineteen. Good test. Uh,
Speaker 1: since I said COVID nineteen, everybody that means short stuff
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