Aphrodite Of Knidos Essay

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Praxiteles was an ancient Greek sculptor who created the Aphrodite of Knidos out of marble. The original Sculpture did not survive thought out time, but copies did. The most outstanding copy of Aphrodite of Knidos is located at the Vatican museum ("Classical Greece"). This sculpture portrays the goddess Aphrodite, nude, holding a piece of drapery over a vase. Aphrodite stands with a sleight weight shift in her legs, as evidenced by the bending of her left knee, which realistically portrays normal human stance. While her right hand covers her genital area, her left hand embraces a thoroughly wrinkly piece of drapery hanging over a vase. Weight shift is also observed in the curve of Aphrodite’s hips and neck, and her hair is depicted in a way resembling real human hair, and her face is more specific than generalized. ("Aphrodite of Knidos”). It rapidly became one of the most well-known works by Praxiteles for the bold portrayal of Aphrodite as proudly nude. This statue is supposed to show Aphrodite preparing for the ritual bath that would restore her purity (Berz). Praxiteles was commissioned by the citizens of Kos to create a statue of the goddess Aphrodite. He created two versions: one that was fully draped (unknown as…show more content…
Mainly this is because Aphrodite is pictured as a regular person, and yet she is still considered to be beautiful. A lot of people picture Aphrodite to be tall and thin with long blond hair and blue eyes, but obviously our cultures are different. Today this statue would be considered beautiful, but not for the same reasons the Greeks did. It would be considered beautiful because of its past not its present. Also, I find this statue to be very empowering. The way Aphrodite is covering her private areas, but she is not afraid of someone else seeing her, to me that represent pride and strength. We don’t need to be afraid of someone else getting to know us, for who we are, nor change to be
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