page_title: Venus of Martres
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Venus of Martres / Description
context_page_description: The Venus of Martres is a sculpture fragment from an antique replica of the Aphrodite of Knidos. The replica was made around the first century of the common era. It is on display at Musée Saint-Raymond in Toulouse, France.
context_section_description: The Venus of Martres consists in a marble head in good general condition, although the tip of the nose if damaged. The shape of the neck indicates it might have been part of a bust or of a full-size statue. The hair is held in place by a ribbon that circles the head twice and shapes it into a bun. The face is slightly asymmetrical.
  In his 1828 catalogue Alexandre Dumège identifies the fragment as representing Venus:
  Imitation of the greatest perfection that nature produced, and ideal beauty itself, could not depict in more admirable forms this goddess whom Lucretius named delight of men and gods
  In 1865, Ernest Roschach instead identifies it to a depiction of Diana:
  It might as well be seen as Diana. It even seems that the proud beauty of the face and the energic development of the neck muscles would rather justify this attribution and hint at the chaste goddess, accustomed to running in the woods and take deep inbreaths of the fotrifying air of the mountains.
caption: Vénus de Martres (de face, gros plan), MSR, Musée Saint-Raymond
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