Aphrodite

This sculpture, dating back to the age of Hadrian, 117-138 AD, was found together with other marble statues that decorated the summa cavea of the Campanian Amphitheater in Capua. Aphrodite is depicted semi-naked, with a himation-cloak covering her lower body supported by the knee of her slightly bent left leg, with her left foot resting on Ares’ helmet. Her arms are raised to probably hold Ares’ shield, used as a mirror. Restored in 1820 by Augusto Brunelli, it derives from a bronze original from the end of the 4th century BC, taken from the Hadrianic age, judging by the soft rendering of her face and the contrast between the smoothness of the naked parts and the chiaroscuro of the drapery. In Roman times this type was in other cases modified to the figure of Nike – Victory in the act of writing the victor’s praises on the shield, with the addition of wings and a stylus in his right hand. With a transformation from a symbol of love that wins the war to a prosopopoeia of glory. National Archaeological Museum of Naples.