Aphrodite Binding Her Hair (Diadoumene)

Marble is a difficult material for a statuette of a nude figure, as the limbs are apt to break. This figure is supported by a tree stump touching her leg. In the bronze original, Venus wrung out the long tresses of her hair with raised arms, while in the marble this motif has been altered to connecting, flat strips of marble that resemble bands for binding up her hair. These constraints can be contrasted with the freedom of movement enjoyed by the statuettes in bronze.

A similar ancient marble statuette of the goddess Diana is on the sideboard in the painting, "The Archdukes Visiting a Collector's Cabinet" (Walters 37.2010).

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

[Said to have been found at Panderma (Kyzikos), 1884]; A. J. von Nelidow, Paris, [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Sale, Collection de Son Exc. Mr. de Nelidow, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 23-24 May 1911, no. 248, pl. II-IV; Dikran Kelekian, New York and Paris, 1911, by purchase; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1911, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.