A Roman Torso of the Goddess Venus

Black Marble, Roman Period or Later

Height 34 inches (86.5 cm).

Provenance:

The James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection, Chicago, 1971-2020.

Christie's, New York, Sacred and Imperial [...] Part II, 23 September 2020, Lot 994. (where listed as 20th Century)

Published:

Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, New York, She (Exhibition Catalogue), 1970, no. 11.

J. Candy, A Fabulous 'She', New York Times, 13 December 1970, p. 25.

Note:

One of the most iconic and highly recognizable images from antiquity is Venus, the goddess of love. A delicate depiction of beauty, sexuality, and fertility, this exceptional black marble Venus stands apart for its unique dark hue.

To the Roman elite, the word for marble (marmor) meant more than just a type of stone. They understood and relished the degrees to which marble can portray and replicate realism. Due to complex geological processes, marble can exhibit numerous textures and colors. During the 2nd Century A.D., the most coveted stone for Roman emperors was bigio morato, a dark-gray almost black marble sourced from Africa. The most notable example of this marble used in sculpture is the Furietti Centaur Statues discovered at Hadrian’s imperial palace at Tivoli. The centaurs became famous, in large part, due to the rarity and high quality of their stone. They are now on display at the Capitoline Museum in Rome, Italy.

This black marble Venus comes from the renowned collection of James and Marilyn Alsdorf (Chicago, Illinois) and must have been acquired in 1970 from Cordier & Elkstrom Gallery, New York. Together with twenty-six other paintings and sculptures, the torso was featured in a seminal exhibition called She, which showcased Matisse's Nu Blue and de Kooning's Woman on a Sign II. Hailed by the New York Times for its "imaginative conception" and "knowledgeable assembling", the exhibition highlighted representations and symbols of woman spanning 4,500 years while confronting how she has been depicted throughout the ages.

For a comparable torso in black stone, see Roman Basalt Statue of Aphrodite (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Inv. no. 28.57.6).