Aphrodite Has Always Remained An Inspiration For Artists

Aphrodite has long piqued the curiosity of painters and authors as the most beautiful of the Gods, as well as the Goddess of "love, beauty, and sexual desire." The mythical marble figure of Aphrodite of Knidos, sculpted in 364/361 BCE by the Athenian sculptor Praxiteles, is the most well-known of her portrayals. It was later praised by Pliny the Elder (23/24 CE – 79 CE) as the best sculpture ever created. Although just a piece of the image has remained, literary descriptions and subsequent coin types have allowed for the identification of countless replicas. The statue depicted a naked Aphrodite modestly concealing her genital region while reclining against a water jug, which she supported with her robe wrapped over it.

Another mythical Aphrodite painting is credited to Apelles of Kos, a Greek painter who flourished during the reign of Praxiteles. He created the Aphrodite Anadyomene panel painting (Aphrodite Rising from the Sea). Alexander's mistress, Pankaspe, is said to have posed for the artist. Aphrodite/Venus statues abound during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, many of them influenced by Praxiteles' Aphrodite of Knidos. Crouching Venus and Aphrodite Kallipygos are two more well-known sculptures (Aphrodite of the Beautiful Buttocks). Renaissance artists adored Aphrodite as well. Primavera, a painting by Sandro Botticelli, is "one of the most written about, and most disputed artworks in the world."