Aphrodite of Menophantos

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Aphrodite of Menophantos a Venus Pudica signed by Menophantos, first century BCE, found at San Gregorio al Celio, Rome (Museo Nazionale Romano)

The Aphrodite of Menophantos is a Roman marble statue of Venus of the Capitoline Venus type. It was found at the Camaldolese monastery of San Gregorio al Celio. It bears the signature of Menophantos^[1], a Greek sculptor, apparently of the first century BCE, of whom nothing more is known. The Camaldolese coenobites occupy the ancient church and monastery of S. Gregorii in Clivo Scauri founded on the slope (clivus) of the Caelian Hill by Pope Gregory the Great about 580. His foundation was dedicated in honor of the apostle Andrew, on his own property. By the tenth century Gregory's name was appended to that of the apostle, whom he eventually supplanted.^[2] The sculpture came into the possession of prince Chigi. Johann Joachim Winckelmann described this sculpture in his Geschichte der Kunst des Altertums (vol V, ch. II).^[3]

[edit] Notes

^ "Apo tis en troadi afroditis minofantos epoiei"
^ Christian Hülsen, Le Chiese di Roma nel Medio Evo: S. Gregorii in Clivo Scauri
^ William Smith, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, (1870) v.II.1044 (on-line text).

[edit] References

Haskell, Francis and Nicholas Penny, 1981. Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900 (Yale University Press). Cat. no. 84.
Helbig, Wolfgang, Führer durch die öffentlichen Sammlungen klassischer Altertümer in Rom 4th edition, 1963-72, vol. II.