I've always thought, the reason to her iconic success was because of the fact that she was.. incomplete. Her limbs weren't there and gave us a reason to create our own interpretations of it and question the artwork through our own abilities of perceiving. She's the most 'mysterious' one out there in my opinion. The history itself also becomes an interesting part to analyze
Venus de Milo reminds me of a Get Backers (an anime) arc that was about some rich, artsy guy who was totally in love with Venus de Milo. His girlfriend or wife or something had obtained Venus de Milo's missing arms and wanted to reattach them to the statue so that her beauty would be destroyed and he would come back to her. I dunno, the mini-plot made a very big impact on me even though I barely remember the story. It felt so poetic.
@@nokaton Perhaps it also makes the statue feel more precious. Like, isn't it lucky that people have been able to preserve this much of it? Oddly, this does not seem to be the case for other damaged statues. I think it helps that she kept her face.
I have orignal statue of venus de milo which is made by white gold and old more than 2000 years also tested by lab if anyone want to see then send me your contact number i will show you the orignal statue of venus de milo
@@hamsandwichindahouse bruh I get where you're coming from, but he tried to point out this was a piece that's remarkable in specifically European history, and that it would make sense that it'd garner European attention, whom also use the metric system. He never really excluded other non-Americans in this context.
Same thing, just like how Australians and New Zealanders are the same or Americans and Canadians are the same or Germans and Austrians are the same..... Joking by the way!
@@Defensive_Wounds even if it is a joke, it should be clear that Romans and Greeks were two different cultures and of different origins unlike the examples you gave above.
I like Les Bourgeois de Calais by Auguste Rodin the most. And arguably, it has a better story than The Thinker. VOX could tell why did it take so long for Rodin to make the statue and also, the history of Calais citizens.
I have orignal statue of venus de milo which is made by white gold and old more than 2000 years also tested by lab if anyone want to see then send me your contact number i will show you the orignal statue of venus de milo
I know that the Venus de Milo is always held up as the epitome of female beauty. But even though it lacks a head, I think that the Nike of Samothrace is much more beautiful and expressive. It is, by far, my favourite sculpture.
4:05 Isn't it more "glorious" for the statue be identified as "Hellenistic" than "Classical"? Since Napoleon wants to be in line of the glorious empires of Greek (Hellenistic), and Rome. Also, it should be Aphrodite, since it was created by a Greek sculptor in a Greek island during the Greek Era.
The last "glorious Greek empire" was Classical, and ended with Alexander the Great. The Hellenistic period is mostly one of exporting Greek culture abroad, so the art is a lot more diverse (and interesting), but I guess Napoleon-era art standards would consider it "more bastardized."
@@ikaemos Are you for real? The kings of the line of Ptolemy ruled Egypt and Seleucids ruled West Asia. The greatest powers of their age and centres of culture and science. The Hellenistic era is called like that for a reason
@T. O. T. U. N. T. shut up, its the french that made this statue famous without the french you would have never known about this statue, the guy who sold it found it in his proprety, it doesn't belong to greece but the guy that found it, now it belong to the Louvre museum since they bought it, its not about having foreign artefact but more about having a peice of every civilisation that had existed, the Louvre museum has artefact from across the world not just France
@T. O. T. U. N. T. do you know the concept of museums??? you haven't been to many museums in your life. have you??? this statue doesn't belong to Greece, if you decide to create privately in your room a painting does it belong to Greece, there's french artifact in almost every museums across the world, nobody in France is complaining, this statue belong to the Louvre museum whether you like it or not, the Louvre museum is not your typical village museum, it is a giant global museum with hundreds of thousands artifacts from across the world and every civilisation, you don't come to the Louvre to see french artifact, but world artifact, if you want to see french artifact you have countless other museums in France for that, the Louvre is different it is not only the biggest museum in the world but also the oldest
@@cardett75 Most ancient artifices in the museum of Louvre are stolen as a matter of fact and do not come from privately bought collections of the past. As a person who has been to Louvre I found it disgusting how many stolen artefacts there are in there, not only from Greece and Cyprus but also from other countries. They should have already been given back to the original countries a long time ago but if they did that then Louvre would have nearly no ancient artefacts to show off. Hence they do not give them back as then the museum would not be as profitable for them in the future.
Well you know, standards in art change all the time. There were probably thousands of sculptures more realistic and dynamic than Venus de Milo, but by our standards today, it's the pinnacle of classical sculpture (even tho it isn't Classical lol). If it were made nowadays, no one would bat an eye tho. There are thousands of artists around the world who are perfectly capable of making impressive marble statues in the classical style, because the information and training to do so is more plentiful and more widely disseminated than ever before. Also, the art world has changed. Ever since Modern art, many institutions are more attracted to abstract and non-realistic works. The invention of photography made it so that artists don't need to always be realistic or to paint like Renaissance masters.
We know who the sculptor was, the plinth that was removed had this inscription: “Alexandros, son of Menides, citizen of Antioch on the Meander made the statue”
There are some rumours that when the Greek sold the statue to the French, the statue had arms. But during the selling the arms got broke either from an argument between the Greeks and French or when the statue was being brought aboard a French ship. Surprised that Vox didn't mention that...
I read it was a fight between Turkish and French for the statue's possession. There are a lot of rumours regarding this statue so i believe it's understandable.
I have orignal statue of venus de milo which is made by white gold and old more than 2000 years also tested by lab if anyone want to see then send me your contact number i will show you the orignal statue of venus de milo
@@TheMedicatedArtist It was, but to be fair, it also didn't shy away from depicting women with various weponry. @Jon I, I think the question is not so much "Was she Aphrodite or Venus?" but rather "Was she a goddes of love at all?" She easily could have been someone else entirely, with different attributes...
We are all born mad aphrodite was almost never depicted with weaponry, since she was a goddess of love and beauty. normally athena, artemis, nike, and other war goddesses would be tho
@@kat5594 Yeah, I know. And I suppose it wouldn't go amiss to point out that to see weapons as somehow better than a weaving wheel is a sexism of its own - just a bit hidden. That being said. Do we have _any_ clues that the woman in the sculpture is Aphrodite, other than the fact that some French guy named her Venus?
@Jon I Aphrodite's various symbols didn't include a distaff. It was Athena who was associated with it, and she's also the goddess who weaved, and a major player in the well-known tale of Arachne.
Phil, your videos are the most educational and mind thrilling at Vox channel. Thanks to you and team who helped you make this video. Extra points for translating inches to metric system :)
Of the music listed at the end I could only find magic fountain and con dulce, but not montmartre memories. Maybe this is the piano piece but I haven't been able to find out the actual music so I'm not sure. Shazam doesn't help either because the man begins speaking way too early in the video.
The arms fell off. They were separate pieces of stone held on by tenons, too. You can see the holes where the tenons fit, especially on her left shoulder. It's likely they were from a different piece of stone than the torso.
I think the video misses one important point, which is how rare Hellenistic sculptures are. As far as I know the Louvre only has two examples: Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Somothrace. Every other sculpture in the museum is classical, often reproductions of earlier lost Hellenistic sculptures. Hellenistic sculpture was also often done with wood (which rotted) or bronze (which was sometimes smelted for re-use), meaning even fewer sculptured survived. So, perhaps her earlier fame was for different reasons, but her current fame is largely due to how rare such an example is, especially one in (relatively) good condition, showing sophisticated sculpting techniques dating from such an early period. Note: I'm not an art historian, so please correct me if I'm missing anything.
It's interesting how important branding is in art. I mean taking an artist and making them globally famous, so their work becomes worth more than anyone else's work and people flock to galleries to see it. The French are brilliant at it which is why everyone on earth knows the Mona Lisa. I actually worked on a panel for the National Gallery of Scotland to discuss ways to promote Scottish artists so that when tourists come to Scotland they want to see a famous work, like with Van Gogh in the Netherlands. Edinburgh attracts millions of tourists and we have globally famous authors but the city has never seemed to value art. There are countless statues and they are all war memorials or politicians. Unlike France, Italy or Spain where there is tons of statues and art simply to makes cities and towns more beautiful. We recently opened another statue in Edinburgh and it was to honour a Polish bear that was a mascot of Polish soldiers in Edinburg during the war. So we have around 200 statues to regiments and battles and instead of something just for art they decided a military bear was needed to be honoured. No wonder we have no artists.
iconic and relatable. she digs at the universal experience of not knowing what to do with your arms. every other statue of venus looked awkward and uncentered to me. de milo feels the most distilled and honest. without her arms, posed in her half tilt, i see a woman absolutely in control of herself. self-confident and powerful. playing a harp, holding a mirror, touching a man. these are all staged actions that centre the audience's need for context. what does venus create, give, do? what is her worth to the world? but beauty is not a creation or a gift. love in itself has worth to the world. without arms, venus simply is.
They just bought a commission of the same thing they had already stolen (and lost) from some guy that found it again on Google and deleted the watermark.
Vox should make a video about ''The Birth of Venus''. That painting is my favorite interpretation of the Goddess Venus. I love how Sandro Botticelli depicted Venus as a voluptuous, red hair woman in all his pantings.
I have orignal statue of venus de milo which is made by white gold and old more than 2000 years also tested by lab if anyone want to see then send me your contact number i will show you the orignal statue of venus de milo
this reminds me of the post that says americans use everything to mesaure something except the metric system. Venus has a Shaq sized foot. me: ???? Americans: omg Venus' foot measures 12 inches me: omg Americans: ????
You were actually right, im not flexing but my school has some Venus de Milo replica too but not that high tho... It was too common to see that it's a masterpiece.
I don't know who made it, I don't know if it is from hellenistic period or classic, and really I don't care - the important thing is that this statue, of Aphrodite of Milos, is beautiful.
But it isn't sure at all that the second part of the plinth was that which was found next to the statue. In fact it seems that they didn't correspond. And as for the inscription : nothing says it wasn't added later on the plinth. No, we have to judge this statue according to stylistic criterias only.
iansteelmatheson : Hi, mister, I am trying to find out whether large statues were built with malleable material such as cement, or they were "carved" from natural stones such as marble. Here your words "it's not a statue" are highly educational to me. Would you say a few more words about what is a statue and what is a sculpture?
2:57 young Danny Devito? This picture was in one of my books in middle school and I wrote on it DANNY DEVITO~ !!! Needless to say, I was not a very popular kid. I recognize now the "pity but out of love for children's mental health fiendships" from some awersome teachers back then.
i'm greek. i felt so sad seeing AFRODITE of milos in the louvre museum a few months ago. french need to give us back what they STOLE from us. it's one of the only 3 places in louvre with very long queues of tourists. the other 2 are mona lisa and victory of samothaki (ALSO GREEK AND STOLEN.)
