Today's debt lessons
from... Aphrodite of Knidos!
The GREAT GREEK visual artist, Athenian
sculptor Praxiteles (son of Kifisodotos the Presbyter, 4th century BC), made
his works to be seen by their viewers from all corners ... The copies of Aphrodite of Knidos, which are they were made to "see" only from the front (“en
face”, face-front) ... And that's a big... level difference...
That's why he was the most famous of the Attic
sculptors, the most copied and of course one of the most famous sculptors of
all times, all over the world! He was also the first to create the naked
feminine form in natural size!
As for Aphrodite of Knidos, this was the most
famous work of Praxiteles! He made it using, as models, his two mistresses (plural: “hetairai”), Phryne (body) and Kratini
(head) and was the most beautiful statue of the goddess, according to
eyewitnesses. Furthermore, when the goddess,
Aphrodite herself, saw the statue, she wondered, when and
how… Praxiteles had seen her... naked! (The only mortal men who had seen her
naked, were Paris, Adonis and Anchissis - how lucky!).
The original work was
destroyed (probably) by fire in the palace of Constantinople (475 AD), along
with the golden ivory statue of Zeus from Olympia, and more great works of art[1]...
They were gathered there (an offer of the christian and
eunuch, Lausos) by the tragic and miserable Spanish-Roman emperor of Byzantium,
Theodosius I (3rd century), who despite he forbade ancient Greek naturalism and
ceased Olympics, is being taught as... Great! This
pervert, when faced the beauty of the statue... forgot all about his own... bans...
Copies of the statue were almost everywhere:
Aphrodite of Cologne (Vatican), Venus of the Capitol, Aphrodite of Medici,
another in Adrian's Villa (Adriana) in Tivoli (where there was a copy of the
entire temple of Cnidus!), etc. the statue of Cnidus was an order of the
inhabitants of... Kos island to the sculptor...
Why am I telling all of this? When Nicomedes I
of Bithynia offered to redeem the huge debts of Knidos, asking for the reward
of the famous statue (which he wanted to decorate in his new capital,
Nicomedia), the Knidians, despite the economic problem, rejected his offer ...
The marble statue of the Cedar patron saint Aphrodite, with the goddess naked
just before her bath, attracted many people to Knidos to see and admire it ...
These ancient ... tourists would later solve Knidos's debt problem ... That's
why ancient works of art must be where they were born and intended by their
creators ... And not when their robbers took them ...
Because they have a soul and they save and protect their birthplaces... while
sooner or later they will avenge the thieves ... since the worthless heirs are
not...
History is not just to be parrot-repeated, but to be applied...
[1] Cedrenus, in 322B, tells us of various items
removed from temples and set up at Constantinople, after the defeat of Eugenius
by Theodosius in 394.
“…In the [palace] of Lausus was… the image of Athena of Lindos, of
emerald stone, four feet high, the work of
Scyllides and Dipoenus the statue-makers, which was originally given by
Sesostris, tyrant of Egypt, as a gift to Cleobulus, the tyrant of Lindos. And the
Aphrodite of Cnidos, from white stone, nude, hand over the pudenda, the
work of Praxiteles of Cnidos. And
the Hera of Samos, the work of Lysippus and Bupalos of Chios. … And
the ivory Zeus of Phidias, which Pericles dedicated in
the Olympic temple…”.
Translation: Δημ. Δρες/D. Dres.
The article in greek / Το άρθρο στα ελληνικά, ΕΔΩ.
ΛΕΞΕΙΣ-ΚΛΕΙΔΙΑ: ΑΦΡΟΔΙΤΗ, ΚΝΙΔΟΣ, ΠΡΑΞΙΤΕΛΗΣ
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