the Medici Aphrodite

238 Pages·2017·8.65 MB·English

LLoouuiissiiaannaa SSttaattee UUnniivveerrssiittyy
LLSSUU DDiiggiittaall CCoommmmoonnss
LSU Master's Theses Graduate School
2005
AA HHeelllleenniissttiicc mmaasstteerrppiieeccee:: tthhee MMeeddiiccii AApphhrrooddiittee
Angel D. Arvello
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College
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RReeccoommmmeennddeedd CCiittaattiioonn
Arvello, Angel D., "A Hellenistic masterpiece: the Medici Aphrodite" (2005). LSU Master's Theses. 2015.
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A HELLENISTIC MASTERPIECE:
THE MEDICI APRHODITE
A Thesis
Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the
Louisiana State University and
Agricultural and Mechanical College
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts
in
The School of Art
by
Angel D. Arvello
B. A., Southeastern Louisiana University, 1996
May 2005
In Memory of
Marcel “Butch” Romagosa, Jr.
(10 December 1948 - 31 August 1998)
ii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to acknowledge the support of my parents, Paul
and Daisy Arvello, the love and support of my husband, Kevin
Hunter, and the guidance and inspiration of Professor
Patricia Lawrence in addition to access to numerous
photographs of hers and her coin collection. I would also
like to thank Doug Smith both for his extensive website
which was invaluable in writing chapter four and for his
permission to reproduce the coin in his private collection.
Also, thanks go to P. G. Burbules and the collector who
prefers to remain anonymous for allowing me to reproduce the
coins in their collections. In addition I would like to
thank the following people and museums for their help and
permission to use photographs of pieces in their
collections:
Yvonne Brandt of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen,
Dresden; John Benicewicz of Art Resource; Julie Clements of
the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; Marcia Erickson of the North
Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC; Claus Grønne of the Ny
Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen; Peter Huestis of the
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC; Sally Kurtz of The
Dayton Art Institute, Dayton OH; Erin Schleigh of the Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston, MD; Lauren Simonutti of The Walters
Art Museum, Baltimore, MD.
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Lastly I wish to thank my technical advisors, Jack
Cartwright and Keith Landry, for their computer skills which
helped in the completion of this project and Frederic Silber
whose legal advise was an immense help.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
ABSTRACT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
CHAPTER ONE - NUDITY AND THE KNIDIA . . . . . . . . . . 1
CHAPTER TWO - COPIES, VARIANTS AND QUOTES (HYBRIDS,
PASTICHES AND MOTIFS). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
CHAPTER THREE - THE QUESTION OF TIME . . . . . . . . . 93
CHAPTER FOUR - NUMISMATICS AND THE QUESTION OF PLACE OF
ORIGIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
CHAPTER FIVE - THE AFTERMATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
APPENDIX: LETTERS OF PERMISSION . . . . . . . . . . . 207
VITA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
v
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure Page
1.01. Archaic bronze figure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.02. Archaic bronze figure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
2.01. Copy of the Knidia, Louvre Paris. . . . . . . . . . 21
2.02. Copy of the Knidia, National Museum, Athens . . . . 22
2.03. Copy of the Knidia, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek . . . . 23
2.04. Copy of the Knidia, “Borghese Head”. . . . . . . . .24
2.05. Copy of the Knidia, Louvre, Paris . . . . . . . . . 26
2.06. Copy of the Knidia, Louvre, Paris . . . . . . . . . 27
2.07. Copy of the Knidia, Museo Nazionale Romano . . . . .29
2.08. Quotation of the Knidia, found in Athens . . . . . 30
2.09. Quotation of a variant of the Knidia. . . . . . . . 30
2.10 Loose copy of the Knidia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.11. Variant of the Knidia, Museo National Romano . . . 32
2.12. Small Scale variant of the Knidia . . . . . . . . 34
2.13. Venus Felix, Museo Pio Clementino, Vatican . . . . 35
2.14. Quotation of the Knidia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2.15. Quotations o the Knidia, Louvre, Paris. . . . . . 38
2.16. Capitoline Aphrodite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.17. Medici Aphrodite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
2.18. Head of the Captioline Aphrodite. . . . . . . . . . 43
2.19. Head of the Captioline Aphrodite . . . . . . . . . .44
vi
2.20. Head of the Captioline Aphrodite . . . . . . . . . 46
2.21. Head of the Hope Aphrodite. . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
2.22. Head of the Capitooline name piece. . . . . . . . . 49
2.23. Copy of Capitoline, Daynton Art Institute . . . . . 51
2.24. Capitoline Aphrodite, Louvre, Paris . . . . . . . . 52
2.25. Quotation of the Capitoline . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
2.26. Copy of hte Capitoline, MFA, Boston . . . . . . . . 54
2.27. Backview of the Capitoline Aphrodite. . . . . . . . 58
2.28. Backview of the Syracuse Aphrodite. . . . . . . . . 59
2.29. The Hope Aphrodite, National Museum, Athens. . . . 60
2.30. Syracuse Aphrodite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
2.31. Quotation of the Capitoline . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
2.32. Minturnae or “Naples head”. . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
2.33. Head of the Medici name piece, Uffizi, Florence . . 67
2.34. Head of Medici type, New York copy. . . . . . . . . 68
2.35. Munich head”, Staatliche Antikensammlungen. . . . . 69
2.36. “Tomis head”, Museul de Arheologie, Constanca . . . 71
2.37. Copy of the Medici. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
2.38. “Tauride Venus” (Copy of the Medici) . . . . . . . 74
2.39. NY and Florence copies of the Medici . . . . . . . 76
2.40. Copy of the Medici, National Gallery of Art . . . . 77
2.41. Copy of Medici, North Carolina Museum of Art. . . . 79
2.42. Copy of Cyrene Aphrodite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
vii
2.43. Copy of Cyrene Aphroidte, Terme, Rome . . . . . . . 80
2.44. Nude Aphrodite, formerly on Art Market . . . . . . .81
2.45. Nude Aphrodite, Santa Barbara Museum of Art . . . . 81
2.46 Nude Aphrodite, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. . . . 81
2.47. Bronze Pudica Aphrodite from Sidon, Louvre . . . . 83
3.01. Seated Aphrodite from Taras . . . . . . . . . . . 101
3.02. Aphrodite and Eros Tanagra . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
3.03. Copy of Leaning Muse, J. Paul Getty Museum . . . . 108
3.04. Muses from J. Paul Getty Museum . . . . . . . . . 109
3.05. Head of Demeter from Lykosour. . . . . . . . . . . 112
3.06. Head of Artemis from Lykosoura . . . . . . . . . . 112
3.07. Head of Apollo from Messene, Messene Museum. . . . 114
3.08. Head of young hero from Messene, Messene Museum. . 114
3.09. Tritonesses from temple at Lykosoura . . . . . . . 115
3.10. Head of Herakles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
3.11. Head of Herakles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
3.12. “Beautiful Head” from Pergamon . . . . . . . . . . 120
3.13. Fragmentary head from the Telephos Frieze. . . . . 121
3.14. Telephos receives arms from Auge . . . . . . . . . 123
3.15. Telephos receives arms form Auge . . . . . . . . . 124
3.16. Ptolemy VI, Alexandria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
3.17. Ptolemy VI, Alexandria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
3.18. Bernice II, Museo Nuovo, Rome. . . . . . . . . . . 129
viii
4.01. Coins from Knidos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
4.02. Coins from Knidos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
4.03. Coin from Knidos, PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
4.04. Archaic drachm from Knidos . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
4.05. Archaic oboli from Knidos . . . . . . . . . . . . .142
4.06. Silver drachm from Knidos. . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
4.07. Silver diobol from Knidos, ca 390-330. . . . . . . 143
4.08. Bronze coins from Nicoplis ad Istrum . . . . . . . 145
4.09. Bronze coin from Nicoplis ad Istrum. . . . . . . . 146
4.10. Bronze coins from Nicolpolis ad Istrum . . . . . . 149
4.11. Bronze coin from Deultum, Thrace . . . . . . . . . 152
4.12. Bronze coin from Deultum, Thrace . . . . . . . . . 152
4.13. Bronze coin from Deultum, Thrace . . . . . . . . . 152
4.14. Bronze coin from Saitta. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
4.15. Bronze coin from Saitta. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
4.17. Coins from Saitta, Lydia . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
4.18. Bronze coin from Pontos Amasia . . . . . . . . . . 157
4.19. Bronze coin from Pontos Amasia . . . . . . . . . . 157
4.20. Coin from Megalopolis in the Peloponnesus . . . . 161
5.01. Portrait statue as Capitoline . . . . . . . . . . .174
5.02. Portrait statue as Capitoline. . . . . . . . . . . 174
5.03. Portrait statue as Capitoline, Vatican . . . . . . 174
5.04. April, Vindobonensis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
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