Commentary Prepared by Dr. Julia Lenaghan, Ashmolean Museum

C 174
Chiragan version of the head of the Aphrodite of Knidos by Praxiteles. Toulouse

Roman head of Aphrodite with hair pulled back and bound by a fillet. Based upon a statue made by Praxiteles around 350 BC for the city of Knidos.

Marble (Parian)
Head
39 cm

The head was found in Chiragan in 1827.
France, Toulouse, Musée Saint-Raymond, 30328
Roman period rendition based on an original dated ca. 350 BC

Preservation:
The head, neck, and small portion of the bust are preserved. They were worked separately from the statue. The tip of the nose and the lower portion of the hair knot were missing and restored. These restorations were removed in the twentieth century (but are preserved in the Ashmolean cast).

Description:
The head depicts a female turning to her left. She has long wavy hair that is brushed off a soft young face. The face has an oval shape which narrows at the chin. It is asymmetrical because of the turn of the head. The brow is triangular. The eyebrows slant downwards at the outer corners. The nose is straight. The mouth is small with parted lips. The chin is pointed. The hair, rendered in thick crinkly strands is parted in the center. It is pulled backwards, covering the upper part of the ears, and is gathered in a bun at the back of the head. The hair in the bun is rendered in large chunky locks. A fillet encircles the head in two parallel paths.

Discussion:
The Toulouse head is a loose version of the head of an original marble statue of Aphrodite made by Praxiteles around 350 BC for the city of Knidos (see cat.no. C 172). The Toulouse head is known in two other replicas, the Kaufmann head (see cat.no. C 173) and one in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. These three heads differ from other extant versions of the Knidian Aphrodite in size, details of facial structure, the course of the fillet, and the rendering of the hair. Some scholars have, therefore, suggested that these replicas follow a well-known Hellenistic statue based upon the Aphrodite of Knidos. It has even been suggested that this is the same Hellenistic statue on which the "anxious" (see discussion under cat.no. C 172 and 175) versions of the Knidian Aphrodite are based. J.Lenaghan

Bibliography:
C. Blinkenberg, Knidia. Beiträge der Kenntnis der Praxitelischen Aphrodite (Copenhagen 1933) 168-172 figs.58-59 full catalogue entry
B. Vierneisel-Schlörb, Katalog der Skulpturen Band II: Klassische Skulpturen des 5 und 4 Jahrhunderts v. Chr. (Munich 1979) 332 footnote 51 in the same replica series as the Kaufmann head
D. Cazes, Le Musée Saint-Raymond (Toulouse 1999) 104-107 comments on the Knidian, proposes Vierneisel-Schlorb’s asssessment, notes that the head has been dated to the first century AD