A Tale of Seven Nudes

The Capitoline Aphrodite counts among the most copied statues of antiquity. In 1951, Bianca Felletti Maj collected 101 replicas of the type compared with 33 for the Medici Aphrodite and a mere five for the so-called Aphrodite of the Troad; and many more examples have surfaced since. Yet despite the Capitoline type’ s popularity, the date, location and authorship of its original remain clouded, as does its relation to these other ‘pudica’-type Aphrodites, especially the Medici. Leaving aside the Aphrodite of the Troad, this article presents new evidence that may resolve one of these problems and sheds some new light upon some of the others.