Venus in Art: From Classical Myth to Renaissance Beauty

Introduction to Venus and Aphrodite

Throughout history, Venus has long been a source of inspiration for artists. Her representation of love and beauty has been captured in various mediums — from paintings and sculpture to music and drama. Venus has served as a universal symbol of beauty and has embodied the secrets of love. Central to understanding how artists have been able to use her as such a representation is an appreciation of Venus and Aphrodite's roles in history and Greek mythology.

Venus is an ancient Italian goddess closely associated with fields and gardens, later identified by the Romans with the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite. Although the question of how Venus came to be identified with so important a deity as Aphrodite remains unanswered, the identification itself is certain and is frequently reflected in art. As a native Italian deity, Venus had no myths of her own. As a result, she adopted those of Aphrodite and through her became associated with beauty and love.

The legend of Aphrodite is described in detail in Homer's Iliad. In this epic, Aphrodite is said to be the daughter of Zeus and Dione, a Titan goddess. Other stories tell how she sprang, fully grown, from the foam of the sea near the island of Cythera. From there, Zephyrus, the west wind, carried her gently on a shell to Cyprus, which was always regarded as her true home. Every god, even Zeus, wanted this beautiful, golden goddess as his wife. Aphrodite was too proud and rejected them all, and as punishment, Zeus gave her to Hephaestus (Vulcan in Roman mythology), the ugly god of the forge. This good-natured craftsman built her a splendid palace on Cyprus. Aphrodite left him for Ares (Mars), the handsome god of war, and one of their children was Eros (Cupid), the winged god of love.

Aphrodite was also known to quickly punish those who resisted the call of love. According to myth, Cupid shot golden arrows into the hearts of those his mother wanted to unite in marriage. Aphrodite also possessed a magic girdle that made whoever wore it irresistible, and she sometimes loaned it to others. Aphrodite was worshipped chiefly as the goddess of human love but was also widely venerated as a nature goddess. Because she came from the sea, sailors prayed to her to calm the wind and the waves.

Venus in Classical and Renaissance Art

This paper explores Venus's representation in art through the classical and Renaissance periods and into the nineteenth century. The art of the ancient Greeks and Romans is classified as classical art — a label also applied to later periods in which artists looked to that ancient style for inspiration. The Romans learned a great deal about sculpture and painting from the Greeks, and this helped extend the influence of Greek art into later ages.

Classical art focuses on capturing simplicity, reasonableness, humanity, and sheer beauty in its subjects. Greek religion, a love of beauty, and a growing spirit of nationalism helped shape this period of artistic expression. One famous example is Aphrodite of Melos, commonly known as the Venus de Milo. This celebrated marble statue is now exhibited in the Louvre in Paris; although nothing is known about its sculptor, experts date it between 200 and 100 BC.

Aphrodite has consistently been a figurehead for Greek and Roman artists. A tremendous amount of poetry has been written about her, and sculptors have carved countless figures in her likeness. Because of her association with love and feminine beauty, the goddess Venus has been a favorite subject in art since ancient times — notable representations include the Venus de Milo (c. 150 BC) and the painting The Birth of Venus (c. 1485).

In classical art, one of the more intriguing images of the goddess Aphrodite is a sculptural work known as the Ludovisi Throne. It is thought to depict the birth of Aphrodite from the sea, with the goddess being assisted by a pair of female silhouettes. Although other interpretations exist, this reading presents an early scene of the goddess emerging into the world. The artist skillfully rendered the folds of a wet garment draped around Aphrodite — a technique for portraying sheer, wet fabric that later became popular in ancient Greek sculpture, particularly in statues depicting Aphrodite as a symbol of the female form and sexuality. Prior to the nude depictions that became popular in the nineteenth century, female forms were not depicted accurately and were often rendered with little contrast. The folds of fabric served to follow the female curves, effectively outlining the figure beneath.

Although the Ludovisi Throne may be an early representation of the birth of Aphrodite, the goddess continued to be an enormously compelling subject for artists. Greek sculptors were especially drawn to images of Aphrodite, and they were followed closely by Roman artisans who also took pride in portraying her in an array of fascinating scenes.

Since Venus is a pre-eminent figure of both beauty and sexuality, her presence in art triggers a dominant aesthetic theme. According to Arscott and Scott (2000), artistic representations of Venus cause us to see art itself as synonymous with the beauty of the goddess (5). Beckley (1998) argues that Aphrodite's influence on art is not merely to provide visual beauty but to serve as the very notion or idea of beauty itself:

"She [Aphrodite] was more than aesthetic joy; she was an epistemological necessity, for without her, all the other gods would remain hidden, like the abstractions of mathematics and theology, but never palpable realities. Owing to her, the divine could be seen and heard, smelled, tasted and touched. She made manifest the divine mind. And we respond to her radiant presence in things with words like divine, marvelous, gorgeous, superb, wonderful, amazing, heavenly, delightful, out-of-this-world — words that attest to the divine enhancement of any ordinary thing, whether the feel of a fabric, the fall of a woman's hair, the taste of wine" (Beckley, 1998, p. 267).

In other words, Beckley argues that Aphrodite defines beauty itself. The concept of art as we know it would not exist without her, and this is precisely why she is so often used as a subject for artistic expression.

According to Lombardi (1998), in contemporary culture Aphrodite is often presented simply as a deity of petty desires. Lombardi argues, however, that contrary to this view, Aphrodite was a unique and powerful deity whose influence was recognized across many areas of life. Common depictions of Aphrodite in classical art reveal her importance to ancient Greek society and reinforce her legitimacy. As Lombardi notes, "Aphrodite is often pictured sitting or riding on a variety of animals, particularly birds such as swans or geese." For example, a depiction by an Achilles painter (ca. 440 BC) portrays her riding a swan, while a drawing by a Pistoxenos painter (ca. 460 BC) shows her seated on a goose. According to Lombardi, this association with the sky reinforces Aphrodite's identity as the heavenly goddess who was also revered in the natural world, supporting her role as the "Queen of Heaven."

The term Renaissance describes the period of European history from the early fourteenth to the late sixteenth century. Derived from the French word for "rebirth," it originally referred to the revival of the values and artistic styles of classical antiquity. During the Renaissance, art was heavily influenced by Christianity and often displayed religious overtones, yet artists also focused on the aesthetic qualities of beauty — perhaps one reason why Venus remained such a rich source of inspiration.

In Italy, painter Sandro Botticelli produced one of the world's most famous paintings — not of a Christian legend but of a classical myth — in The Birth of Venus (c. 1485–86). Executed in tempera on canvas, the work is now displayed in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence. It depicts Venus rising from the sea, where, according to Greek mythology, she was born. A notable feature is the way Venus emerges on a shell, driven to shore by flying wind-gods.

During the eighteenth century, the French painter François Boucher also captured the charms of Aphrodite, most notably in The Triumph of Venus. Boucher's style falls within the Rococo genre — light, playful, and at times frivolous — which proved to be a fitting style for depicting the goddess of love and beauty. This painting conveys to the viewer feelings of delight and joy.

Another artist who produced works depicting the birth of Aphrodite was the French painter J.-A.-D. Ingres. Ingres's work is more classical in form than Boucher's and belongs to the artistic movement known as Neoclassicism. It draws inspiration from the past, depicting Aphrodite as she emerges from the sea.

Various representations of Aphrodite became especially popular during the nineteenth century. Not all of these paintings aimed to communicate a serious intellectual purpose. One example is Adolphe Bouguereau's Birth of Venus, which is more dynamic than the formal, classical-feeling Venus Anadyomene of Ingres but carries a much lighter tone.

The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries saw a growing fascination with the nude, and images of Venus were naturally among the most popular. In France, the success of a work of art was often gauged by the quality of its nudes. The nude was the ultimate genre for capturing the ideal in art, and Venus was its most spectacular example. Because of her status as the goddess of beauty, depicting her as such posed a great challenge to artists and made her the subject of a majority of nude works. Beyond the visual representation, Venus as the goddess of love encompassed all that is generally considered unrepresentable — sexuality, fertility, and desire. Her association with the ocean from which she was born also linked her with conceptions of women and femininity.

According to Shaw (2000), in the nineteenth century the sea was itself a metaphor for the uncontainable ebbs and flows of female reproduction — and specifically for the taboo subject of menstruation. Idealizing the female body to create a successful image of Venus therefore meant transforming it, elevating it so as to repress and contain these associations. When painted successfully, Venus was meant to be an idealized figure in which female sexuality and the fertility of the female body were brought under control:

"The female figure thus posed the ultimate challenge to the male artist wishing to display his transformative power or mastery. However Venus always threatened to signify more than herself, to outstrip the bounds of her mythological story, to break the boundaries of ideal form and to say something about the nitty-gritty of sexuality and desire, or to show, in the places where her representation broke down, that some things were ultimately beyond representation" (Shaw, 2000, pp. 90–91).

In addition to representing female sexuality, nude depictions of Venus served another important purpose in art: the demonstration of male mastery and artistic power.

Works Cited

Arscott, C. & Scott, K. (Eds.) (2000). Manifestations of Venus: Art and sexuality. New York: Manchester University Press.

Beckley, B. (Ed.) (1998). Uncontrollable Beauty: Toward a new aesthetics. New York: Allworth Press.

Hersey, G. (1996). The evolution of allure: Sexual selection from the Medici Venus to the Incredible Hulk. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Goodman, E. (Ed.) (2001). Art and Culture in the Eighteenth Century: New dimensions and multiple perspectives. Newark: University of Delaware Press.

Lombardi, A. (1998). Aphrodite: Her Power and Her Art. Paper submitted to Images of Women in the Ancient World: Issues of Interpretation and Identity.

Malvern, M. (1975). Venus in Sackcloth: The Magdalene's original origins and metamorphoses. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.

Prettejohn, E. (Ed.) (1999). After the Pre-Raphaelites: Art and aestheticism in Victorian England. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.