Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of I Heart Radio, Hey Brainstuff.
Speaker 1: Luren Bobebam here. She's one of the most recognizable figures
Speaker 1: in the art world, but she's shrouded in mystery ever
Speaker 1: since Louis the eighteenth donated her to the Louver in
Speaker 1: eighteen twenty one. She's captured the attention and praise of
Speaker 1: audiences and historians, but many are still baffled by her origins.
Speaker 1: So who is Venus de Milo and what exactly happened
Speaker 1: to her arms? The half draped, armless marble statue of
Speaker 1: a goddess that many of us know as the Venus
Speaker 1: de Milo likely represents one of two figures who aren't
Speaker 1: technically Venus, the Roman goddess of love, sex, beauty and fertility,
Speaker 1: but rather either Aphrodite, Venus's Greek counterpart, or Amphride, the
Speaker 1: goddess queen of the Sea and wife of Poseidon. But
Speaker 1: when the statue was discovered in eighteen twenty on the
Speaker 1: Greek island of Milos and presented to Louis, who in
Speaker 1: turn donated her to the Louver, no one was quite
Speaker 1: sure what to make of her. For the article this
Speaker 1: episode is based on has to work spoke via email
Speaker 1: with Andrew Stewart Nicholas C. Petris, Professor of Greek Studies
Speaker 1: Emeritus at UC Berkeley. He said, when the Louve acquired
Speaker 1: the statue in eighteen twenty, the British Museum had just
Speaker 1: acquired the Elgin Marbles, universally attributed to the fifth century
Speaker 1: BC sculptor Phideous, generally acknowledged by ancients and moderns as
Speaker 1: the greatest of Greek sculptors. Since she was obviously later
Speaker 1: stylistically but still classical, she was immediately attributed to Praxilites,
Speaker 1: the greatest fourth century BC sculptor and universally acknowledged master
Speaker 1: of the female nude epitomized by the love goddess Aphrodite.
Speaker 1: A base found with her signed by the sculptor Alexandro's
Speaker 1: of Magnesia on the Meander, a city not founded until
Speaker 1: the third century b c. E was thus immediately and
Speaker 1: conveniently lost. According to Stuart, a German archaeologist is credited
Speaker 1: with discovering Venus de Biolo's true root as a Greek
Speaker 1: neo classical statue, not a classical one, but the revelation
Speaker 1: didn't come until the late nineteenth century. When he realized
Speaker 1: that her drapery was clearly Hellenistic and probably created in
Speaker 1: the second century BC. Despite her real identity, the statue
Speaker 1: is still often tied to an older era. Stewart said
Speaker 1: she still is regarded as a masterpiece of the classical genre,
Speaker 1: partly because we have so few originals of her size,
Speaker 1: state of preservation and quality. If you've never seen her
Speaker 1: in person, you may not know how much larger than
Speaker 1: life she really is. The Venus de Milo stands some
Speaker 1: six ft eight inches tall that's about two hundred and
Speaker 1: four centimeters. Some details of her original appearance are known.
Speaker 1: For one thing, she originally wore metal jewelry, including a bracelet, earrings,
Speaker 1: and headband. Since there are fixation holes remaining in the
Speaker 1: appropriate locations on the statue, the marble that she's carved
Speaker 1: from may have been embellished with painting, gilding, silvering, or
Speaker 1: other coloration that's since faded or fallen away. And at
Speaker 1: some point she did in fact have arms, but they
Speaker 1: were never found. Stewart said, the right arm is broken away,
Speaker 1: its hand originally grasped the top of her drapery. The
Speaker 1: bust legs, left arm, foot base, and herm socketed into
Speaker 1: the base, were carved separately and doweled on with iron
Speaker 1: dowels set and lead, a common technique. A herm, by
Speaker 1: the way, is a square pillar that's topped with a
Speaker 1: carved statue of a god's head, often hermes, hence the name.
Speaker 1: Stewart said that at the end of Antiquity, a time
Speaker 1: period that signifies the transition from the Greco Roman period
Speaker 1: to the Middle Ages, someone removed Venus's limbs in order
Speaker 1: to take the metal dowels and recycle them. Quote. The
Speaker 1: best bet, in my opinion, is that she held an
Speaker 1: apple in her outstretched left hand, which would have rested
Speaker 1: on the herm. Such an arm was found in a
Speaker 1: nearby niche and is represented in a nineteenth century drawing
Speaker 1: in the louver. The apple would be both her personal
Speaker 1: accessory or attribute her toke and prize at the Judgment
Speaker 1: of Paris, and a pun on the name of the island,
Speaker 1: since the Greek for apple is Milan and apple's feature
Speaker 1: prominently on Hellenistic million coins. The Judgment of Paris is
Speaker 1: a Greek myth that's central to Venus de Milo's many
Speaker 1: symbolic ties. It describes a contest between three goddesses Aphrodite, Hera,
Speaker 1: and Athena for the prize of a golden apple addressed
Speaker 1: to the fairest. Stewart wrote all about this in his
Speaker 1: book Art in the Hellenistic World. An introduction quote from
Speaker 1: that book dedicated to the gods of the Gymnasium in
Speaker 1: which she was found. She would have symbolized the ties
Speaker 1: of affection that united the Melians who exercised there. Moreover,
Speaker 1: Greeks had long understood the judgment of Paris as symbolizing
Speaker 1: a man's three principal life choices, war Athena of politics,
Speaker 1: Hera or love Aphrodite. Stewart says that because they were
Speaker 1: at the time largely engaged in Warren politics, that third category,
Speaker 1: love of marriage and home life, were attractive or aspirational.
Speaker 1: He said that Venus's multidimensional appeal quote would have created
Speaker 1: the sense of an in group among the Gymnasians clientele,
Speaker 1: satisfying at one stroke the demands of local piety and
Speaker 1: this culture's overriding desire to connect. But this is just
Speaker 1: one theory how stuff works. Also spoke with Elizabeth Wayland Barber,
Speaker 1: Professor Emerita of Archaeology and Linguistics at Occidental College and
Speaker 1: author of Women's Work the First twenty thousand years Women,
Speaker 1: Cloth and society in early times, She thinks Venus's missing
Speaker 1: arms were very much engaged in a different and meaningful
Speaker 1: domestic activity. She said, while studying the origin and development
Speaker 1: of textiles in the Eastern Hemisphere, I found copious evidence
Speaker 1: that women were always doing most are all of the
Speaker 1: textile related work. The Venus de Milo is an exactly
Speaker 1: the position used at that time and place for spinning bread,
Speaker 1: the part of the job that took the most time,
Speaker 1: so women were spinning every moment they could find. Barbara
Speaker 1: says that although the statue's arms are long gone, the
Speaker 1: musculature sculpted in her shoulders and upper back suggests that
Speaker 1: they were raised in just the position required for spinning,
Speaker 1: and her eyes are focused on the exact spot one
Speaker 1: would have to watch as they spun, she said. Also,
Speaker 1: Aphrodite a k A. Venus was viewed by the Greeks
Speaker 1: as the goddess of spinning as well as of procreation,
Speaker 1: but the two are closely linked, both by the umbilical
Speaker 1: cord attached to the new baby and by the fact
Speaker 1: that in both spinning and baby making you start with
Speaker 1: a formless blob and create something remarkable out of it,
Speaker 1: seemingly by magic. Whatever the case, we can all agree
Speaker 1: that the Venus de Milo is one of the most
Speaker 1: enduringly fascinating, albeit puzzling products of the Hellenistic period. Today's
Speaker 1: episode is based on the article Venus de Milo the
Speaker 1: most famous arm a statue in the world on how
Speaker 1: Stuffworks dot Com, written by Michell Konstantinovski. Brain Stuff is
Speaker 1: production of by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot Com, and it is produced by Tyler Klang.
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