Venus Callipyge
Ancient Roman marble statue of a woman with beautiful buttocks.
The Venus Callipyge, also known as the Aphrodite Kallipygos or Callipygian Venus, is an Ancient Roman marble statue thought to be a copy of an older Greek original. It depicts a partially draped woman raising her peplos to uncover her hips and buttocks, looking back over her shoulder, and is conventionally identified as Venus (Aphrodite), though it may equally be a portrait of a mortal woman. The statue is part of the Farnese Collection in the National Archaeological Museum, Naples.
- Date (marble copy)
- Late 1st century BC
- Date (lost Greek original)
- c. 300 BC
- Material
- Marble (copy); bronze (lost original)
- Current location
- National Archaeological Museum, Naples (Inv. numb. 6020)
- Subject
- Venus (Aphrodite) or a mortal woman
- Rediscovery
- Early modern period, missing its head
Lore & Background
The marble statue extant today dates to the late 1st century BC. The lost Greek original on which it is based is thought to have been bronze, executed around 300 BC, towards the beginning of the Hellenistic period. The provenance of the marble copy is unknown, but it was rediscovered, missing its head, in the early modern period. The head was restored, first in the 16th century and again in the 18th century; the restored head was made to look over the shoulder, drawing further attention to the statue's bare buttocks, thereby contributing to its popularity. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the statue was identified as Venus and associated with a temple to Aphrodite Kallipygos at Syracuse, discussed by Athenaeus in his Deipnosophistae.
Reader's Guide
The Venus Callipyge is significant as a surviving Roman copy of a Hellenistic Greek original, exemplifying the anasyrma pose and the eroticized depiction of the female form. Its restoration, which gave the figure a backward glance, shaped later interpretations and linked it to Athenaeus's tale of the founding of a temple to Aphrodite Kallipygos at Syracuse. The statue was widely copied in the 17th and 18th centuries, including by Jean-Jacques Clérion and François Barois, and influenced modern works such as Jeff Koons's Metallic Venus. Its legacy includes the term 'callipygian' and ongoing scholarly debate over whether it represents a goddess or a mortal woman.
Did You Know?
- The statue's head was restored in the 16th century and again in the 18th century, with the restorer following the earlier restoration fairly closely.
- The statue is sometimes said to have been found in the ruins of Emperor Nero's Domus Aurea, though this is considered unlikely.
- In the 17th and 18th centuries, the statue was identified as Venus and associated with a temple to Aphrodite Kallipygos at Syracuse, discussed by Athenaeus.
- A copy by François Barois was provided with additional marble draperies by Jean Thierry to avoid offending prudish public taste.
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