In search of 'other' venuses : images of vulva-covering Venus at the margins of the ancient world and modern typological discourse
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Praxiteles' Knidian Aphrodite was one of the most famous statues in the ancient Roman world. It was so famous that, 1500 years after its destruction, more than 500 images that replicate its distinctive vulva-covering gesture survive. In the past, antiquarians and art historians have collected, categorized, and cataloged metadata about these "replicas." Using this metadata, they have constructed a typology that has allowed them to reconstruct the Knidian Aphrodite's form. However, it has also established a material and visual hierarchy of images. Moreover, it has severed the contextual ties that bind surviving images to the diverse ancient contexts for which they were created. This dissertation investigates the ancient significances of these vulva-covering goddess (VCG) images and their modern discursive formations. It studies three groups of VCGs: alabaster cinerary urns made in Republican Volterra; bronze Provincial Roman coins from Knidos, Philadelphia, and Saitta in the Roman province of Asia; and bronze statuettes from Antarados and Marathus on the coast of the Roman province of Syria. This dissertation demonstrates that scholars have constructed each of these groups of ancient images as being at or beyond the margins of the modern typology used to describe and interpret "replicas" of Praxiteles' Knidian Aphrodite. It deconstructs this discourse. Then, it writes three counternarratives of the contextual meanings of VCG images for each of these three groups of images in the ancient times and places for which they were created. This project demonstrates that the images that comprise these three assemblages cannot be dismissed as poor-quality imitations of Praxiteles' Knidian Aphrodite. Instead, it shows that the patrons and makers of these images selectively appropriated elements of the form and reputation of the Knidian Aphrodite. They gradually created the tradition of simulacra of the Knidian Aphrodite that remains apparent to the present day. However, while these images share aspects of Praxiteles' statue's form, their significances are significantly altered. My investigation contributes three things to ancient studies. First, it offers three chapter-length case studies that articulate how the signification of form was a dynamic process that changed over time. Second, it analyzes the theories and methodologies by which modern historians of ancient art have collected, categorized, and cataloged VCG images. Third, this project concludes that we will only discover what "Other" VCG images exist with stories to be told if we discard the deeply problematic VCG typology.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2022; ©2022 |
| Publication date | 2022; 2022 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Gisch, Dillon Joseph |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Trimble, Jennifer, 1965- |
| Thesis advisor | Trimble, Jennifer, 1965- |
| Thesis advisor | Ceserani, Giovanna |
| Thesis advisor | Derbew, Sarah |
| Thesis advisor | Parker, Grant Richard, 1967- |
| Degree committee member | Ceserani, Giovanna |
| Degree committee member | Derbew, Sarah |
| Degree committee member | Parker, Grant Richard, 1967- |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Classics |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Dillon Gisch. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Classics. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2022. |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/fg783xj7700 |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2022 by Dillon Joseph Gisch
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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