Venus of Capua – Sculpture in La Serena
Work
Venus of Capua
Author
Lysippos
Year
4th century BC
Work narrative
History
Venus of Capua represents the Roman goddess of love and beauty in a poised, half-draped composition. Her upper body is nude, a heavy mantle encircles her hips and legs, and the turn of her head follows the gesture of her raised hand. This arrangement gives the figure a contemplative character while opening the composition into the space before her.
The sculptural type is known through ancient copies and variants derived from a lost Greek bronze model of the late fourth century BC. Its principal archaeological reference is the Hadrianic-period Roman marble found around 1750 at the Campanian amphitheatre and now catalogued by the National Archaeological Museum of Naples as Afrodite di Capua, inventory 6017. The Museo del Prado relates the origin of the type to Lysippos or his school, while Gabriel González Videla's catalogue and the La Serena plaque attribute it to Scopas. Neither attribution is proven conclusively.
The name Venus of Capua identifies the type through the findspot of the Naples statue. Venus Victrix of Capua remains part of its documentary history: Victrix means victorious and reflects a historical interpretation of the figure. Musea Brugge preserves an albumen print by Achille Mauri, dated 1860–1895, titled Venus Victrix van Capua and inscribed “Venere vincitrice di Capua.” The acquisition catalogue for La Serena also uses the compound name, whereas the local name Venus de Capua is documented in the twentieth century and remains on the current plaque.
González Videla's catalogue records the La Serena sculpture as a 1.52-metre eighteenth-century copy in Carrara marble acquired in Rome for the open-air museum on Avenida Francisco de Aguirre. The sculpture later suffered vandalism and restoration, and its right forearm is incomplete today. The sculptor, workshop and seller of the copy, as well as its exact carving date and reproduction process, remain undocumented.
Work record
Technical Data
AUTHOR
Greek prototype attributed to Lysippos or his school; historical and local attribution to Scopas; sculptor of the La Serena copy undocumented
CHRONOLOGY
Eighteenth-century marble copy; Greek prototype, 4th century BC, known through a Hadrianic Roman version
MATERIALITY
White Carrara marble.
TECHNIQUE
Marble carving; reproduction process undocumented
MOVEMENT
Greco-Roman classical tradition (eighteenth-century copy)
WORK DESCRIPTION
Free-standing Carrara-marble sculpture representing Venus as a half-nude female figure. The weight rests on the right leg while the left leg bends slightly, shifting the hips and giving the torso a gentle turn.
A heavy mantle wraps around the hips and legs and descends in deep folds towards the base. In its present state, the left arm extends forwards and upwards and retains its hand, while the right forearm is missing from below the elbow. The head turns towards the raised hand and the wavy hair is gathered behind it. The sculpture stands directly on a rectangular plinth.