U CAN CALL ME MISTRESS.

A U S T R A L I A

By Gabi Mulder

Statue of Aphrodite

1st or 2nd century A.D. Roman.

Copy of a Greek statue of the 3rd or 2nd century B.C.

The goddess of love is shown as though surprised at her bath. Originally, her arms reached forward to shield her breasts and pubis in a gesture that both concealed and accentuated her sexuality.

Statues of Aphrodite in the nude proliferated during the Hellenistic period. All were inspired to some degree by the Aphrodite of Knidos, created in the fourth century B.C. by the famous Greek sculptor Praxiteles.

That statue, the first major Greek work to show the goddess nude, was celebrated throughout antiquity. This work has the same gesture of modesty and is similar to another Roman copy, the so-called Medici Venus.