Venus and the Sphinx - New York City, NY
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Metro2
N 40° 46.762 W 073° 57.762
18T E 587529 N 4514782
This sculpture is located at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Waymark Code: WMNBC6
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 02/05/2015
Views: 4
The Museum's website (
visit link) provides the information about this sculpture:
"Venus and the Sphinx
Artist: Auguste Préault (French, 1809–1879)
Date: 1868
Culture: French, Paris
Medium: Tinted plaster
Dimensions: Overall (confirmed): H. 42 1/2 x W. 45 x D. 23 3/4 in. (108 x 114.3 x 60.3 cm)
Classification: Sculpture
Credit Line: Purchase, Lita Annenberg Hazen Charitable Trust Gift, in honor of Ambassador Walter H. Annenberg, 1981
Accession Number: 1981.319.1
On view in Gallery 800
Like much of the sculpture of the Romantic movement in French art, Préault's work was rejected from the Paris Salons throughout the 1830s and 1840s. Official recognition came after the Revolution of 1848. This plaster group is the working model for the commission of 1867 for the imperial palace at Fontainbleau."
Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us about the Roman goddess:
"Venus... is the Roman goddess whose functions encompassed love, beauty, sex, fertility, prosperity and desire. In Roman mythology, she was the mother of the Roman people through her son, Aeneas, who survived the fall of Troy and fled to Italy. Julius Caesar claimed her as his ancestor. Venus was central to many religious festivals, and was venerated in Roman religion under numerous cult titles.
The Romans adapted the myths and iconography of her Greek counterpart Aphrodite for Roman art and Latin literature. In the later classical tradition of the West, Venus becomes one of the most widely referenced deities of Greco-Roman mythology as the embodiment of love and sexuality."