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© Museu de Badalona
Omeka ID 1886
Ciutat romana de Baetulo. Clos de la Torre
Roman world

Venus of Badalona

MB 3276

Object type
sculpture
Production date
1 / 100
Fabric
-
Museum
Museu de Badalona
Culture
Roman world
Discovery location
Ciutat romana de Baetulo. Clos de la Torre
Materials
Carrara marble
Township
Badalona (Europa, Espanya, Catalunya, Barcelona, Barcelonès)
Technique
sculpting
Where is it?
Exposició permanent
Dimensions
-
Description
Small marble sculpture representing Venus. The goddess leans on her left leg and has her right knee slightly bent. The workmanship is very careful and the modeling very smooth; an obvious product of a workshop, possibly Italian, specialized in this type of piece, inspired by the famous Venus of Cyrene, although it is tilted to the opposite side. Behind her, two strands of curly hair fall down her neck to her shoulders. This means that she must have worn her hair in one or two buns, like other better-known Venuses, such as the Aphrodite of Cnidus, the Venus of Cyrene or the Capitoline Venus. Also on the back, at the level of the right thigh, we can see the remains of what could be a wing of her son, Cupid, whom we often find by her side. According to several experts, it is made of white Carrara marble, but this remains to be confirmed with a petrographic analysis or of some other technique that is minimally invasive for the piece. This Venus is artistically interesting because it is inspired by the canons of Praxiteles (a Greek sculptor from the 4th century BC, who marked a style in terms of body proportions), highly appreciated in Hellenistic and Roman times. It is not a modest Venus, since she does not cover her pubis, nor does she have her buttocks covered with a cloth to cover these most intimate parts. Venus represents the canons of beauty in classical Greece and Rome. Compared to the Greek Aphrodite, the Roman Venus, apart from being the goddess of love and beauty, is also the goddess of fertility, passion, pleasure and sexual desire. According to some sources, Venus was the wife of Vulcan, god of fire and metals. Often unfaithful to her husband, she had affairs with Mercury, the messenger of the gods, and with Mars, god of war. She also fell in love with mortal men, like Paris, whom she assisted in the kidnapping of Helen, and was captivated by the beautiful Adonis. From her relations with Mars, two sons were born: Cupid and Hermaphrodite. Due to its beauty and quality, this Venus has become the symbol of the city of Badalona.

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