Aphrodite of Menophantos
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Venus (mythology)
Venus is a Roman goddess principally associated with love, beauty, sex,sexual seduction and fertility, who played a key role in many Roman religious festivals and myths...
of the Capitoline Venus
Capitoline Venus
The Capitoline Venus is a type of statue of Venus, specifically one of several Venus Pudica types , of which several examples exist. The type ultimately derives from the Aphrodite of Cnidus...
type. It was found at the Camaldolese
Camaldolese
The Camaldolese monks and nuns are part of the Benedictine family of monastic communities which follow the way of life outlined in the Rule of St. Benedict, written in the 6th century...
monastery of San Gregorio al Celio. It bears the signature of Menophantos, a Greek sculptor, apparently of the 1st century BCE, of whom nothing more is known. The Camaldolese coenobites occupy the ancient church and monastery of S. Gregorii in Clivo Scauri founded on the slope (clivus) of the Caelian Hill
Caelian Hill
The Caelian Hill is one of the famous Seven Hills of Rome. Under reign of Tullus Hostilius, the entire population of Alba Longa was forcibly resettled on the Caelian Hill...
by Pope Gregory the Great about 580. His foundation was dedicated in honor of the apostle Andrew, on his own property. By the 10th century Gregory's name was appended to that of the apostle, whom he eventually supplanted. The sculpture came into the possession of prince Chigi
Chigi
Chigi may refer to:* Chigi , a crossbreed between a Welsh Corgi and a chihuahua * House of Chigi, a Roman princely family* Chigi , an element in Japanese architecture...
. Johann Joachim Winckelmann
Johann Joachim Winckelmann
Johann Joachim Winckelmann was a German art historian and archaeologist. He was a pioneering Hellenist who first articulated the difference between Greek, Greco-Roman and Roman art...
described this sculpture in his Geschichte der Kunst des Altertums (vol V, ch. II).