Ashmolean Museum hosts exhibition on Aphrodite's cultural evolution

The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford has launched a new exhibition, ‘Aphrodite: The Creation of a Goddess’, exploring the historical and mythological evolution of the Greek goddess of love and beauty. The exhibit examines how her representation in art has frequently sparked intense cultural controversy and debates regarding the objectification of the female body.

Historical instances of such controversy include Mark Twain’s 1880 condemnation of Titian’s ‘Venus of Urbino’ and the 1914 attack on Diego Velázquez’s ‘Rokeby Venus’ by suffragette Mary Richardson. The exhibition traces Aphrodite’s origins from her mythological birth in the sea foam to her historical emergence in Cyprus around 1200 BCE, noting her connections to earlier Middle Eastern deities like Ishtar and Astarte.

The display also highlights the impact of classical sculptures, such as the Aphrodite of Knidos, which revolutionized art by depicting the female form in a state of nudity, and the enduring influence of the ‘Venus Pudica’ pose on artists from the Renaissance to the modern era.