1. ENGLISH - The statue that "dreamed" to become the Venus of Knidos

The statue that "dreamed" to become the Venus of Knidos

In the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, GREECE

2019-04-09

A statue "dreamed" of becoming the Venus of Knidos, Praxiteles' famous work depicting the goddess naked, was presented for the first time in the National Archaeological Museum.

The director of the National Archaeological Museum, Maria Lagogianni, presented to the journalists the reasons why the specific work which emerged two years ago from the museum's warehouses to be preserved and to reveal many of its ancient and newer secrets , it's so special.

"Aphrodite is made up of fragments of original works of antiquity, which, however, do not belong together, they have been stuck together. That is, the torso and the head are from statues of the Roman era, while newer additions were made from different types of marble to produce a statuary type that seemed important in the eyes of the collector of that time. And why was he important? Why is he "dreaming" of a very famous statue, the most important work of a naked woman in antiquity, the Knidia Aphrodite of Praxiteles".

She explained that the statue featured in the National Archaeological Museum is the distant descendant of the statue of Praxiteles. That is, it echoes a metamorphosis of the original made some 50 years later by Praxiteles' son, Kiphisodotus the Younger, which led to another type of statue, the Capitoline Venus.

Interestingly, the additions of marble and the welding of the ancient pieces were done in the modern era. "Maybe in the 18th, 19th, even 20th century," pointed out the museum's director, who attributed the history of the statue as an archaeologist might: "A Roman copyist is impressed by a work of Hellenistic or classical times and because the demands the trade in ancient works of art in Roman times, he produces a series of sculptures which he tries to imitate in this particular beloved and popular statuary type. In our time, archaeologists are asked to "confront" the Roman artist, to understand which original he is copying, when this original dates, in how many types and variations it has spread in order to understand the identity of the work. This is one of the most difficult and demanding jobs in classical archaeology,"

In the case of the Venus (added to the Museum's collections in 1988) things are even more challenging, as the work of art consists of fragments belonging to different periods and different statuary types. "And this is the most interesting thing: How much they want to render the beautiful and restore it by using fragmentary forms of sculptures, putting them together and making restorations with additions of marble or other pieces. This phenomenon is especially observed after the Renaissance, where ancient classical antiquity becomes fashionable, the great courts in Europe are filled with Greek sculptures, and the great Maecenas rulers and collectors cannot tolerate a body without a head or a torso without arms. Therefore they commission great sculptors to complete these statues in order to bring them into a form pleasing to them and to what they imagine as beautiful. This is what is shown, i.e. the "nice otherwise".

Modern methods were used during the conservation of the project, which was carried out in the laboratories of the National Archaeological Museum by the conservators Pepi Tsakris and Yiannis Panagakos. Such as specialized photography methods which give, among other things, the possibility to check the presence of pigments that may be preserved on the surface of the marble, a digital microscope to observe the forms and size of the crystals of each marble and ultraviolet lighting to check the cleaning work. Gamma ray radiography was also used to examine the internal wiring of the marble statue, which was done in collaboration with a private company.

"We achieved surprising results. How do you go to the doctor and get an x-ray and you can see the bones? We saw the internal wiring in great detail. An examination that was a prerequisite for moving the statue from the workshop to the exhibition space, as we had no evidence of the unknown worked work and did not know what to expect," Ms Chakri told reporters, stressing that the investigation of the sculpture is ongoing. A video presented at the entrance to the periodical exhibition shows this connection invisible to the naked eye.

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