The Resurrection of Venus

Discovery

The Venus de Milo was discovered in 1820 by a Greek farmer and the French navel ensign Olivier Voutier on the Island of Mars. France acquired the statue and it was presented to King Louis XVIII then donated to the Louvre Museum in 1821.

The Venus de Milo is one of the few original ancient Greek statues, not a Roman copy of a Greek statue.

Venus in the Louvre

From 1820 until 1940 the Venus de Milo stayed as one of the most famous pieces at the Louvre. When the Nazis invaded France the director of the Louvre, Jacques Jaujard managed to have a plaster cast made and displayed, successfully hiding the Venus de Milo from the Nazis.

Originally thought to be a Classical sculpture the Venus de Milo was re-dated to the Hellenistic period. Placing it as being sculpted in the 2nd Century BC.

The Aura

n the book “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” by Walter Benjamin, Walter analysis the energy of artworks and describes what he calls The Aura of the artwork. The aura consists of the sculpture as well as location the sculpture was meant to be displayed.

When the piece of art or sculpture is moved The Aura of the piece of art changes. The whole energy of the piece changes.

He also dives into the mass production of statues and other pieces of artwork and how The Aura of those pieces changes. Do those pieces have the same energy if they are smaller, not as detailed, or changed in some other way?

Transformation

We can see by the chisel marks and how elaborate the different areas of the Venus de Milo are that she was originally perhaps intended to be viewed only from the front. The drapery is more elaborately carved on the right-hand side of the statue than the left, perhaps because on the left-hand side it was originally obscured from view.

When the Venus de Milo was moved from it’s original location to The Louvre, The Aura of the statue changed. Without the arms of the original and being able to see the whole statue even though she was meant to be seen from the front, she takes on a whole different energy.

The Santorini Workshop

Making copies of ancient Greek Statues isn’t new, even Romans made copies of Greek statues. Carved in marble and then usually cast in bronze. These are the copies museums usually have in their collections.

This workshop was established to give souvenir seekers good legal copies to purchase. A team of 15 painters, sculptors, and refinishers produces dozens of casts each week. They work from master copies of the ancient originals, done at museums or archaeological sites. Artisans coat the original statues in soap or a layer of aluminum foil before encasing them in layers of plaster or clay.

Back at the workshop, those resulting casts are used to create silicon molds which are then filled with a mixture of plaster and hemp fibers. Larger works that are life-size are cast in multiple pieces and then glued together. Museums also commission the workshop to make copies of artworks for display.

When I was in Santorini I was able to visit this workshop and saw all the different Aura’s of these copies. It was a completely different feeling than seeing the Venus de Milo in the Louvre.

The Dissolution of the False Aura

I also had a copy of the Venus de Milo in my studio at my condo. Then on February 19th 2025 a 3 alarm fire broke out burning my entire home down. The fire spread across 6 units and caused $1.1 million worth of damages.

In the following days I was allowed to go back and dug through my burned down studio to find my sculptures that had weathered through the intense fire. This made me think back to the book by Walter Benjamin. This false aura of the copy of Venus de Milo had been burned away.