Antonine Woman as Venus :: Portrait Painting Art Essays

Antonine charrhood as VenusIt is finalised the Antonine Woman as Venus is a woman of noble status. The portrait is do of fine-grain marble, a medium only upper-class persons could spend. Also, only persons of wealth could afford to have such a protrait made. The woman is portrayed as Venus, a goddess who is connected to the imperial family, and members of a royal family would often have themselves visualized as a deity. (De Puma 26) We know she is being portrayed as Venus because of her bare breast and the upper-arm ring. The bare breast is a discover to Venus because she is the goddess of sexuality and desirability. The upper arm ring can be an attribute of Venus as the Statue of Aphrodite (Venus) by Praxiletels displays the same jewelry on a nude body. (Fantham 175)The back of the portrait is slightly slanted, allowing us to speak up the tend at which the portrait was positioned on its support. The portrait is the dispatch relegate of Antonine Woman as Venus, minus the background medallion, which would have created a complete circle above her head. Imagining the medallion was still there, we envision the bust as being placed on a wall. This postition would cause the portrait to angle towards the on-looker and we assume she was placed at eye-level or slightly higher.Antonine Woman as Venus is obviously a freeborn woman. She comes from or was married into an downcast family, which would not be possible for a slave or a freedwoman. She is a young matron of approximately 20 years of age. We can determine she is young and a matron because her pose is not as retiring as an unwed adolescents pose may be or as modest as an elder womans pose may be. (Shelton 292)Her age is also headstrong by her sexually confident pose, her locks draping her neck, and her smooth, unaged facial features. These attributes are not a likeness to an adolescent girl or a woman of age. By the womans young and healthy appearance, we may assume she was able to give the best med ical treatment because she was a wealthy woman of aristocratic status.She was most likely, being a person of upper-class, educated at the usurp age by private tutors, usually before the age of twelve. resembling all Roman women, however, she must conceal her intellect in the come with of men, especially if the situation is concerning her husband.