Aphrodite and Eros

Aphrodite is leaning her left elbow on a tree-trunk; her left leg, which is not weight-bearing, is close to the right leg but somewhat advanced. The goddess is wearing a thin sleeved chiton, which appears to have slipped from her right shoulder and fits the body so closely that some parts – the stomach and legs, for example – appear to be naked. In an effective contrast to the transparent undergarment, the heavy masses of fabric from her mantle fall on the left to the ground, creating subtle interplay between the light marble and the dark folds of material. Her outstretched left hand perhaps held a pomegranate, while her right hand rested on her hip. Eros is standing on the tree-trunk in a diagonal counter-movement to Aphrodite. His figure is that of a slender youth. His legs crossed, he is nestling on his mother’s shoulder, his right arm on her neck. Aphrodite’s left forearm and left foot as well as Eros’s wings were added in classical antiquity and, like the heads of the two figures, have not been preserved. There is great controversy about dating the statuette. The proposals range from the assumption that it is a Greek original of ca. 400 BC to the supposition that it is a new classicistic sculpture of the 1st century BC. The Greek sculpture on which it was based must have been created in the late 5th century BC by a successor of Phidias and served, particularly in Roman times, as the basis for numerous faithful and modified copies.
© Kurt Gschwantler, Alfred Bernhard-Walcher, Manuela Laubenberger, Georg Plattner, Karoline Zhuber-Okrog, Masterpieces in the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities. A Brief Guide to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 2011