Venus De Milo 102 Cm Bronze Workshops Of The Louvre XIXth

Large bronze with brown patina from the Louvre workshops depicting the Venus de Milo, signed on the terrace "Musée du Louvre". Height 102 cm, rare in these dimensions. Dimensions of the base 28x22.5 cm. Aphrodite, known as “Venus de Milo” This statue occupies a prominent place in the history of Greek sculpture and taste for the antique. It is indeed an original Greek sculpture, dated around 100 BC, fortuitously discovered in 1820 on the island of Melos (known as Milo), in the south-west of the Cyclades, by a peasant, not far ruins of an ancient theatre. The style, sometimes described as retrospective, is characteristic of the end of the Hellenistic period, which revives classical themes while innovating. The creator was certainly nourished by the experiences of classical Greek art. The Venus de Milo is in fact part of the tradition of the theme created two centuries earlier by the sculptor Praxiteles. But the master of the Aphrodite of the Louvre knew how to free himself from the heritage of the past and demonstrate creative originality. If the expression of the face retains a somewhat severe coldness that one could tax as classic, the body calls for other comments. Entirely animated by a torsion movement, it fits into all the dimensions of the space and is truly felt as a work in the round. The moving silhouette, its swirling attitude and the modeling with realistic accents speak well of the genius of the creator of this statue. It was offered on March 1, 1821 to Louis XVIII, who immediately donated it to the Louvre. From its discovery, the Venus de Milo was unanimously celebrated. His arrival in France, a real event at the time, was consecrated by the striking of a commemorative medal. And this pious admiration was never to be eclipsed. It owes to this veneration the fact of never having been completed, as was the custom in the 19th century for ancient statues that were presented whole. The many casts presented here and there in European capitals testified to the enthusiasm aroused by the one that the German romantic poet Henri Heine (1797-1856) called Our Lady of Beauty. The sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) praised her splendid belly, wide as the sea. The poet Leconte de Liste (1818-1894) described her as follows: Pure like lightning and like harmony, oh Venus, oh beauty, white mother of the gods.