Crouching Venus with Hand of Cupid

myminifactory

There are a number of Roman copies, showing considerable variation, of the Greek prototype of the Crouching Aphrodite. This particular variation was a favourite of Cézanne, who sketched it in the Louvre (where the original of this work is housed) and adapted it in one of his "Les Grandes Baigneuses". Various sculptors, identities and historical references have been attached to the sculpture, but the evidence is thin. The vestige of a hand on her back presumably belonged to the baby Eros, with whom Aphrodite is frequently depicted. Further reading:Lullies R., Die kauernde Aphrodite, 1954. - Bieber 1955, figs. 290-91. - Cf. Simon, Gymnasium 84, 1977, 355. - Neumer-Pfau 1982, 118. - Pollitt 1986, 57, fig. 50 (type i Termemuseet, Rom). - Cf. Haskell & Penny 1982 nr. 86. - Cf. Bober & Rubinstein 1987 nr. 18. - LIMC II, 1984, nr. 1019.