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A woman holds an object to her face.

A woman stands with one hand on her hip and the other hand holding a bird or bottle shaped object towards her face, which she also turns to the left toward it. She wears a robe which cover her right shoulder, arm, and the length of her body but leave her left breast and arm exposed. Her hair is curled above her ears and tied behind her head. The surface is green with spots of copper throughout.

Gallery Text

Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin that has been used for thousands of years to make objects as diverse as sculpture and figurines, weapons and armor, and jewelry and tableware. The addition of tin and sometimes lead made the alloy more versatile and lowered its melting point; another common copper alloy is brass (copper and zinc), which was in widespread use in the Roman period. Although other materials, like stone, glass, and terracotta, were available, copper alloy items were valued for their golden sheen, versatility, and durability. The material lent prestige and beauty to objects like these statuettes, most of which would have been dedicated to the gods. Modern bronzes are often artificially patinated, like the Rodin sculpture in this colonnade. While ancient bronzes were sometimes gilded or deliberately darkened, the unaltered surfaces naturally acquired a red, green, or brown patina over time.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1960.666
Title
Aphrodite Holding a Dove
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture, statuette
Date
mid 5th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Peloponnesus
Period
Classical period, Early
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/303778

Location

Location
Level 3, Room 3200, Ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Art, Classical Sculpture
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
10.7 x 3.5 x 3.2 cm (4 3/16 x 1 3/8 x 1 1/4 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Bronze:
Cu, 92.61; Sn, 6.61; Pb, 0.28; Zn, 0.005; Fe, 0.01; Ni, 0.03; Ag, 0.05; Sb, less than 0.02; As, 0.4; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, 0.018; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001
J. Riederer

Chemical Composition: XRF data from Tracer
Alloy: Bronze
Alloying Elements: copper, tin
Other Elements: lead, iron, nickel, silver, antimony, arsenic
K. Eremin, January 2014

Technical Observations: The patina is dark green with red. There are ancient copper alloy patches visible on the back of her right shoulder (0.5 x 0.5 cm) and on her stomach (0.5 x 0.9 cm). Another more crudely finished patch (0.7 cm in diameter) is present at the top of the head. There is a casting flaw near the knee on her left leg. Small stress fractures in her right wrist indicate that her hand has been bent slightly upward and back toward her chest. The x-radiograph shows that there are large porous areas on the top surfaces of the shoulder and head.

The statuette is a solid cast. Details in the hair, face, and on the dove were formed in the wax model but have been enhanced by cold working in the bronze. Close examination also reveals the circular stump of an iron pin inserted into the crown of the head. This has led scholars to suggest that this figure was originally intended as a caryatid support for a mirror, and was later altered to become a freestanding statuette.


Tracy Richardson and Henry Lie (submitted 1999, updated 2012)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Said to come from Epidauros. Frederick M. Watkins, New Haven, CT, (by 1960), gift; to the Fogg Art Museum, 1960.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Frederick M. Watkins
Accession Year
1960
Object Number
1960.666
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This small but impressive representation of Aphrodite stands with her weight on her right foot; her left leg is bent sharply forward. She wears a well-modeled himation draped over her left shoulder, which leaves her right breast bare and enfolds her left arm, the hand of which rests on her left hip. A fold hanging below this hand is delicately undercut. Unusual for Early Classical female bronze statuettes, her himation is modeled in large, heavy rounded diagonal folds, which resemble the massive treatment of drapery worn by figures on the pediments of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. The subtle, scallop-like indentations along the raised vertical fold that extends downward along the entire left side of the figure clearly represents a hem and is meant to represent a fringe on the edge of the cloth. A pronounced V-shaped groove separates this edge from the fold immediately behind it. Her left foot, with toes incised, projects from beneath her lower hem. An indication of her right foot is visible under the drapery. The figure turns her head toward her right hand, which grasps a dove. The fingers of her right hand are individually modeled. Incisions mark the wings and tail of the dove; its beak is missing. The woman’s small head is delicately modeled with carefully rendered eyes, nose, and mouth that nonetheless produce a severe expression. Large ears protrude from beneath prominent waves of hair that lead backward from the forehead. The upper section of the coiffure, rendered in waves subdivided into carefully modeled individual locks, ends in a longer curl that has been tucked under the side waves.

Her identity as Aphrodite seems clear from her exposed right breast and the dove in her right hand. As G. M. A. Hanfmann pointed out, this unusual depiction of Aphrodite suggests the potential wrath of this powerful goddess if she is spurned or offended. Hanfmann also noted the close resemblance of the head and coiffure of this statue in profile to an Early Classical marble head in Budapest (1). He was surely right in attributing her to a Peloponnesian workshop, perhaps at Argos, dating her to around 460 to 450 BCE (2).

NOTES:

1. G. M. A. Hanfmann, “An Early Classical Aphrodite,” American Journal of Archaeology 66 (1962): 281-84, esp. 283.

2. Ibid., 283-84. For female statuettes and statues of the second quarter of the fifth century BCE, see R. Tölle-Kastenbein, Frühklassische Peplosfiguren: Typen und Repliken (Berlin, 1986). Compare a statuette in the Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, inv. no. 8599 (from Trikkala); see R. Thomas, Griechische Bronzestatuetten (Darmstadt, 1992) 96-97, fig. 90, n. 177.


David G. Mitten

Publication History

  • George M. A. Hanfmann, "An Early Classical Aphrodite", American Journal of Archaeology (1962), Vol. 66, No. 3, 281-284, pls. 73-74.
  • Fogg Art Museum Acquisitions, 1959-1962, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, 1963), p. 124.
  • George M. A. Hanfmann, Classical Sculpture, Michael Joseph, Ltd. (London, 1967), no. 143.
  • David Gordon Mitten and Suzannah F. Doeringer, Master Bronzes from the Classical World, exh. cat., Verlag Philipp von Zabern (Mainz am Rhein, Germany, 1967), p. 97, no. 93.
  • Suzannah F. Doeringer, David Gordon Mitten, and Arthur Steinberg, ed., Art and Technology: A Symposium on Classical Bronzes, M.I.T. Press (Cambridge, MA, 1970), p. 80-81, fig. 9.
  • Herbert D. Hoffmann, Collecting Greek Antiquities, C. N. Potter (New York, NY, 1971), p. 71, fig. 63.
  • The Frederick M. Watkins Collection, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1973), p. 24-25, no. 6.
  • David Gordon Mitten and Amy Brauer, Dialogue with Antiquity, The Curatorial Achievement of George M. A. Hanfmann, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1982), p. 14, no. 38.
  • Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), p. 113, no. 126, ill.
  • Renate Thomas, Griechische Bronzestatuetten, Wissenshaftliche Buchgesellschaft (Darmstadt, 1992), p. 96-97, no. 89; 179, no. 177.
  • James Cuno, Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Ivan Gaskell, and William W. Robinson, Harvard's Art Museums: 100 Years of Collecting, ed. James Cuno, Harvard University Art Museums and Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (Cambridge, MA, 1996), p. 104-105, ill.
  • Masterpieces of world art : Fogg Art Museum, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Busch-Reisinger Museum, 1997
  • Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC), Artemis (Zürich, Switzerland, 1999), Vol. 2, Aphrodite 166.

Exhibition History

  • Master Bronzes from the Classical World, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 12/04/1967 - 01/23/1968; City Art Museum of St. Louis, St. Louis, 03/01/1968 - 04/13/1968; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 05/08/1968 - 06/30/1968
  • The Frederick M. Watkins Collection, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 01/31/1973 - 03/14/1973
  • Dialogue with Antiquity: The Curatorial Achievement of George M.A. Hanfmann, Fogg Art Museum, 05/07/1982 - 06/26/1982
  • 32Q: 3200 West Arcade, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu