I visited the Pompeii show at the National Gallery of Art -- Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples -- and enjoyed my first glimpse very much. This is a quick sketch from one of the only benches in the entire exhibition. (Why do they do that?)Aphrodite = Venus
I used PR Velvet Black ink in the Lamy Vista, later washed with the waterbrush and some gouache for background tint.
2 comments:
Can you confirm for me that the statue is holding a small sphere in between her left index and thumb and nothing in her right hand.
Brett
Yes, I can. The little sphere appears to be a "remnant" of what was in that hand (the left hand)-- a spear.
This is from page 107-108 of the exhibition catalog: "During the first quarter of the nineteenth century, A. Brunelli, a student of the famous sculptor Antonio Canova, restored the statue's nose, right nipple, bits of drapery including the folds from the left knee down to the foot, and both arms from below the shoulders. ... The eros has now been removed, as has the spear Brunelli placed in Aphrodite's left hand, both of which appear in nineteenth-century illustrations."
I hope this helps.
Mattusch, C. C., National Gallery of Art, & Los Angeles County Museum of Art. (2008). Pompeii and the roman villa : Art and culture around the bay of naples. Washington; London: National Gallery of Art; Thames and Hudson.
Post a Comment