Statue of the Capitoline Aphrodite

The over life-size statue of Aphrodite—caught unawares emerging from her bath—is based on the first large-scale, freestanding sculpture of a female deity in the nude: the Aphrodite of Knidos, carved by the Greek sculptor Praxiteles in the 4th century BCE. Displayed in a shrine dedicated to the goddess on the island of Knidos, Praxiteles’s masterpiece was an immediate sensation. It inspired numerous variations by Roman artists centuries later, including this example, known as the Capitoline Aphrodite, after a version in the Capitoline Museums in Rome.

Aphrodite stands with her weight on her left leg, her head turned to her left. She covers her breasts and pubic area with her hands. Some of her wavy hair, parted in the center, is tied in a top-knot and the rest pulled back in a chignon at the nape of her neck. A garment draped over a loutrophoros (a vessel for water) at her side supports the statue. Some details of the statue that did not survive from antiquity, including the support and small parts of the figure’s body and hair, were restored in marble in the 18th century. Additionally, the head is not original to the body, but comes from another ancient statue of the same type.

The sculpture, discovered in the 1770s near Rome, was transported to Scotland in 1776 by Douglas Hamilton (1756-1799), 8th Duke of Hamilton and 5th Duke of Brandon, where it was displayed with his distinguished collection of ancient sculpture at Hamilton Palace in Lanarkshire for nearly a century and a half. In the 18th century, the statue’s support and small details of the figure were restored in marble. Additionally, the head is not original to the body, but comes from a different ancient statue of the same type.