A Description of the Statue
We have before us in the statue of the Venus of Milo one of the greatest masterpieces of ancient Hellas, and it is of secondary importance whether or not it was the artist’s intention to represent the goddess of love and beauty. Surely this work of art represents womanhood at its best—a noble feminine figure in full maturity, not a maiden but fully developed, a wife or mother; and yet not as a mother with a child, nor as a wife with her husband, but simply as a woman.
There is nothing frivolous about her, no coquetry, nothing amorous. Her eyes betray not the slightest touch of a sensual emotion, not that sentimental moistness, τὸ ὑγρόν as the Greeks called it, and thereby the artist succeeded in transfiguring naked beauty by a self-possessed chastity unrivaled in the art of statuary.
The consensus of art admirers, which is almost, though not quite, universal, sees in this marble the great mother-goddess, das ewig Weibliche, idealized femininity, the goddess of beauty and love, whom the Greeks called Aphrodite and the Romans Venus.
The goddess (if we may so call her) stands before us erect in queenly dignity. Her dress is falling down leaving the upper body entirely uncovered, and yet in spite of the nudity of the figure we are struck with its unparalleled purity and nobility of expression.
The statue has suffered many injuries. Both arms have been broken off and are now lost, and so is the left foot. The tip of the nose has been restored, and there are scratches and cudgel marks all over the body which could not be mended without destroying the original work in the general treatment of the skin. The ears are pierced, so there must originally have been earrings which robbers had torn away before the statue was secreted in the cave.
A line in the hair of the statue shows holes which prove plainly that on top of the head there must have been a coronet like that commonly worn by Greek goddesses and called by the Greeks σφενδόνη, “sling,” because with the strings attached it resembles a sling. It was worn especially by the Queen of Heaven, Hera (the Juno of the Roman pantheon).
Since the arms have been broken off and lost, the artist’s conception with regard to the posture can only be surmised. The face is calm and without passion. It wears a commanding expression, apparently with a suggestion of surprise, even of self-defence.
Judging from the muscles of the left shoulder the left arm must have been raised. Sometimes it has been claimed that the broken hand with the apple, which with other debris was found in the neighborhood, belonged to the statue; and that the apple being the emblem of Venus and at the same time that of the island of Milo as well, the statue represented the patron goddess of the island, but this is very doubtful. Archeologists are not in full accord upon this point for the mere reason that the fragment of the hand with the apple is of rough workmanship and is commonly judged as not worthy of the statue; at best it might be regarded as the work of an ancient restoration. All critics, however, are pretty well agreed that the right hand must have grasped for the falling garment, preliminarily held up by the raised knee.
The Venus of Milo is at present the pride of the Louvre at Paris, and the place where she stands on account of her presence alone may be likened to an ancient pagan shrine, comparable to the room in the Dresden gallery where the Sistine Madonna stands, the latter being a Christian counterpart of the former.
Our Blessed Lady of Milo, as we may call this beautiful representative of Greek paganism in imitation of Veit Valentin’s name Die hohe Frau von Milo, has always a group of admiring visitors sitting quietly before her, and there is often a hush in the room which recalls the sanctity of religious chapels attended by quiet worshipers. There is a sacred atmosphere surrounding the statue and even the hurried globe-trotter feels that he has come into the presence of some divinity that exerts her influence upon the world not by might, but by beauty, grace and loveliness.