40 Fun Facts About Venus De Milo

Which goddess is the Venus de Milo believed to depict?

Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, is the usual identification: Venus is simply her Roman name, and the sensual, half-naked figure suits her better than any rival candidate.

Milos, where the Venus de Milo was found, lies in which sea?

The Aegean Sea island was a port of call for a French navy ship in 1820, and an ensign who went ashore to hunt antiquities was on hand when the statue surfaced.

The Venus de Milo reached the Louvre soon after France returned art seized by which ruler?

Napoleon had filled the Louvre with art seized on his conquests, and prized pieces went home after his fall in 1815, so France hailed the newly found Venus as a masterpiece to fill the gap.

Art historians now assign the Venus de Milo to which period of Greek art?

Hellenistic is the modern verdict: she was carved around the second century BC, late in the story of Greek art, though her idealised face deliberately looks back to older styles.

The Venus de Milo is carved from which marble, named after a Greek island?

Parian marble was quarried on the Greek island of Paros; the Louvre found that a marble hand dug up beside her is carved from the same stone, one reason some scholars think it was hers.

How big is the Venus de Milo compared with a living woman?

Just over life-size: she stands a little over two metres, taller than almost any visitor, so people at the Louvre find themselves looking up at her.

Fixing holes in the marble show the Venus de Milo once wore which of these?

Metal jewellery: she wore earrings, a bracelet and a headband, of which only the fixing holes remain. Her earlobes are gone too, presumably torn away with the earrings.

A marble hand found near the Venus de Milo was holding what?

An apple, the prize Paris awarded in the mythical beauty contest of the goddesses; the hand is carved from the same marble as the statue, though whether it was hers is still argued.

In what condition was the Venus de Milo's body when it came out of the ground?

In upper and lower halves: the bare torso and the draped legs came out of the ground apart, with a piece of hip that let them lock together, and the join now hides in the folds of cloth.

Dumont d'Urville, a young officer who helped France secure the Venus de Milo, later won fame exploring where?

Antarctica made his name: two decades after he saw the statue's worth, he reached a frozen coast and called it Adélie Land after his wife Adèle, a name the Adélie penguin shares.

Like much ancient Greek sculpture, the Venus de Milo may have looked different when new in what way?

Painted in colour is how she may first have appeared: Greek marbles were often painted, and the Louvre suggests hers has faded, since no trace of pigment is left on the stone today.

Before the French stepped in, the Venus de Milo had been loaded on a ship bound for which city?

Constantinople was her destination: she had been sold to a rival buyer, and a French envoy arrived as she was being loaded and had the sale cancelled.

Which king ruled France when the Venus de Milo reached the Louvre in 1821?

Louis XVIII was presented with the statue by his ambassador, the Marquis de Rivière, and handed her on to the Louvre, where she went on show in 1821.

In the 1820s, what did museums usually do with a broken ancient statue like the Venus de Milo?

Carve it new limbs was the rule, and arms were planned for her too; the idea was dropped, and she became a rare antiquity shown as she was found.

Which French sculptor wrote an admiring essay addressed to the Venus de Milo?

Auguste Rodin wrote To the Venus de Milo late in life, speaking to the statue as a living woman and calling her belly immense like the sea.

What became of the sculptor's signature block found with the Venus de Milo?

It went missing: the block named Alexandros of Antioch, a sculptor from a later and less admired age than the Louvre claimed for her, and many suspect it was set aside on purpose.

Which small part of the Venus de Milo's face is a modern plaster repair?

Her nose tip was remade in plaster, one of only a handful of small repairs, because the Louvre decided to show her broken rather than rebuilt.

The Louvre ranks the Venus de Milo among its three great ladies, with the Mona Lisa and which statue?

Winged Victory of Samothrace completes the trio: she was dug up in pieces in 1863, without head or arms, and rebuilt to crown the top of the museum's grand staircase.

Bavaria's crown prince, a collector of Greek antiquities, claimed the Venus de Milo on what grounds?

Found on his land, he insisted: Ludwig had bought the ruins of an ancient theatre on Milos a few years earlier, and she turned up close by, so German scholars long felt she was rightfully theirs.

For decades the Louvre presented the Venus de Milo as a work of which more admired era?

Classical Greece, the age of the Parthenon, was the gold standard: Britain had just bought the Elgin Marbles, and France wanted a masterpiece of the same rank for the Louvre's new star.

Some scholars think the Venus de Milo shows not Venus but which sea goddess, the wife of Poseidon?

Amphitrite was especially worshipped on Milos, the Louvre notes, and a larger-than-life statue of her husband was later dug up on the same island, which led one scholar to pair the two figures.

According to a long-repeated legend, how did the Venus de Milo lose her arms?

In a brawl on the beach, the legend says, as French and Turkish forces fought over her; but a sketch made at the dig shows her already armless, and most scholars now dismiss the tale.

How was the Venus de Milo's missing left arm originally made?

Carved as a separate piece and pegged on, a common Greek practice: the socket that held it still shows at her left shoulder, and her left foot was made and fitted the same way.

In 1821 a leading French scholar believed the Venus de Milo once stood beside a statue of which Roman god?

Mars was his answer: he believed she had been half of a pair, and argued that she should not be restored alone when the whole second figure was gone.

How is the Venus de Milo's hair arranged?

Gathered into a bun at the back of her head: the bun had broken off and turned up among the fragments dug out with her, and the Louvre's record notes that it was glued back on.

Which art historian, presenter of the BBC's Civilisation, called the Venus de Milo 'the last great work of antique Greece'?

Kenneth Clark wrote it in The Nude, his study of the ideal figure, arguing that her sculptor used the inventions of his own time while consciously reaching for the effect of a far older work.

Which statue in Florence did the Venus de Milo displace as the popular symbol of beauty?

Medici Venus: long one of the most admired antique statues in Europe, she had been carried off to Paris and was sent home in 1815; within a few years, one art historian wrote, the newcomer had taken her place.

Which neoclassical painter asked for the drawing that records the Venus de Milo's signature block?

Jacques-Louis David read of her arrival and asked a former pupil for a drawing, which a young student made with the inscribed block shown in place.

Where did the Venus de Milo spend the Second World War?

A French château kept her safe: in autumn 1939, with war threatening Paris, the Louvre sent its treasures to the countryside, and she sat out the war at Valençay.

In 1964 the Venus de Milo was lent to which country, months before it hosted the Olympics?

Japan welcomed her in 1964, on loan from France: she was shown in Tokyo and Kyoto, and visitors queued by the hundreds of thousands to file past her.

In 1870 the Venus de Milo was hidden in a police cellar as which army closed on Paris?

Prussian forces laid siege to Paris, so she was crated and hidden under the police headquarters; the damp there loosened her old plaster repairs and let the Louvre see how badly she had first been put together.

'Venus de Milo' is a track on Birth of the Cool, a landmark album by which jazz trumpeter?

Miles Davis led the nine-piece band, French horn and tuba included, that recorded Gerry Mulligan's tune in 1949; the sides were only gathered as the album Birth of the Cool in 1957.

Which surrealist made 'Venus de Milo with Drawers' in 1936?

Salvador Dalí made Venus de Milo with Drawers in 1936, a half-scale plaster cast fitted with drawers pulled by fur pompoms, picturing the body as a cabinet of hidden secrets.

Which Belgian artist gave a plaster Venus de Milo a flesh-pink body and a deep blue robe?

René Magritte coloured a small plaster copy of her, giving it a flesh-pink body and a deep blue robe but leaving the head white, one of several surrealists who could not resist reworking her.

In which animated sitcom does a rare 'Gummy Venus de Milo' candy cause a scandal?

The Simpsons episode 'Homer Badman' has Homer covet the rare Gummy Venus de Milo; his grab for it, stuck to a babysitter's jeans, is mistaken for harassment and sparks a media frenzy.

Long before the Venus de Milo was carved, what did Stone Age seafarers collect from volcanic Milos?

Obsidian, a volcanic glass that flakes into razor-sharp blades, left Milos by boat well before farming began; pieces found in a mainland cave are among the oldest signs of seafaring in Greece.

What is the term for a figure standing with its weight on one foot, as the Venus does?

Contrapposto, Italian for 'counterpoise', describes the stance: weight on one leg, hips and shoulders tilted in opposite directions; Greek sculptors introduced it in the early 5th century BC with the Kritios Boy.

An inscription naming an athletics official suggests the Venus de Milo once stood in what building?

A gymnasium is the likeliest setting: a stone found near her recorded a dedication by an assistant gymnasiarch, who helped run one, to Hermes and Heracles, the gods who watched over Greek athletes.

In a 1997 live-action TV series, which team of heroes gained a fifth member named Venus de Milo?

The Ninja Turtles met her in The Next Mutation: the four brothers are named after Renaissance artists, so the newcomer took the name of a famous work of art instead.

Which artist coated a plaster Venus de Milo in the deep blue now named after him?

Yves Klein coated a plaster cast of her in International Klein Blue, the intense ultramarine he made his signature and used to cover whole canvases with nothing else.