The Venus de Milo

A Greek ideal of beauty

The Venus de Milo remains to this day the embodiment a Greek ideal of beauty that has long been used as a role model. Discovered in a fragmented state on the island of Milo in April 1820, this original work from the Hellenistic era was believed to have been created around 150-130 BC.

Exposed at the Louvre the following year, the statue caused a sensation: it was the first from Greece to be presented in the collections, and the first that was incomplete.

While the great beauty of her body delighted the aesthetes, the experts contested the identity of this Venus, as well as the position of her arms. Is this Aphrodite holding Paris' apple of judgement, or is the goddess looking at herself in Hades' shield? What if she was Amphitrite, the sea goddess particularly revered on the island of Milo?

Regardless of her identity, alongside the Mona Lisa and the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Venus de Milo is one of the three great ladies of the Musée du Louvre.

Did you know?

The Venus de Milo originally wore a full set of jewellery and must have been painted, at least in part, not in bright white, but in colour!