Venus With The Apple

19th Century
Venus with the Apple
Alabaster, cm alt. 18
The small sculpture represents Venus, the goddess of beauty and love. The languid and sinuous yet innocent and chaste pose references more famous examples like the Venus with Apple by 19th-century neoclassical sculptor Bertel Thorvalsen. The goddess silently observes the fruit she holds in her right hand, while with the left she holds the cloth used to cover her nudity. The fruit is usually represented in the hands of the goddess of beauty in memory of the dispute over the golden apple disputed between Juno, Minerva and Venus herself and then won by the latter, considered the most beautiful by the trionaire prince Paris ; in exchange, the goddess offers the young man the love of the most beautiful woman in the world, Elena, a love affair that led to the outbreak of the Trojan War.