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Palatine Museum

Statue of Aphrodite Charis

This female statue, in Thassos marble, was found in 1862 during the Pietro Rosa excavations near the Domus Tiberiana on the Palatine, opposite the temple of the Magna Mater. The sculpture is missing its head, left arm and right forearm and includes a modern reconstruction of its feet and ankles. Depicting a female figure in an erect position, the statue is dressed with a sleeveless chiton that leaves one breast exposed, sculpted with great skill to simulate the effect of a light fabric. Some scholars identify the statue as a Roman reinterpretation of the Aphrodite sculpted by Callimachus in the 5th century BC, while another hypothesis, considering the statue’s location, proposes that it might represent Venus Genetrix, possibly created for a small shrine within the temple of the Magna Mater. On display in the Palatine Museum.