Venus de Milo is uncovered in 1820
Venus de Milo was uncovered, after centuries being buried, on April 8, 1820.
Together with the Mona Lisa and The Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Venus de Milo is one of the three most famous female figures in the Louvre. Her name comes from the Greek island of Melos (now called Milos), where she was found in 1820 and acquired almost immediately by the Marquis de Rivière, the French ambassador to Greece at that time. He then presented her to King Louis XVIII, who donated her to the Louvre in March 1821. In barely two years, the Venus had moved from the shadows to the light.
Ideal Greek Beauty – Venus de Milo and the Galerie des Antiques
The Venus de Milo
Issued for the 1999 PHILEXFRANCE
LaPoste France
Designer: Jean-Paul Veret-Lemarinier
Engraver: Claude Jumelet
aKnown also as the Aphrodite of Milos, the Venus de Milo is a marble sculpture that was likely created by Alexandros of Antioch (2nd – 1st century BCE)–a Greek sculptor from the Hellenistic period—during the late 2nd century BCE. It features a nearly nude, larger-than-life (6 feet, 8 inches tall) female figure posed in a classical S-curve.
Her body is composed of two blocks of Parian marble as well as “several parts [that] were sculpted separately (bust, legs, left arm, and foot),” according to the Louvre. Furthermore, the sculpture was likely colorfully painted and adorned with jewelry, though no pigment or metal remains on the marble today.
In 1820, the statue was discovered by a farmer in an ancient niche on the Aegean island of Melos. While it was unearthed in pieces, it was able to be reassembled. Its fragmented arms—the left holding an apple and the right brushing against the figure’s waist—however, were deemed unoriginal and not re-attached.
The History of the Venus de Milo Statue, an Ancient Greek Sculpture