Israel. Exponen estatua de Venus de 1.800 años

Después de 10 años de restauración, ‘La Venus púdica’ de mil 800 años de antigüedad será expuesta al público israelí, durante expo ‘La belleza en la santidad’.

EFE. Jerusalén, 7 de abril de 2005

El Museo de Israel ha expuesto por primera vez una estatua de Venus, la diosa del amor, esculpida hace 1.800 años y hallada hace diez en la localidad israelí de Beisán, entre los restos de una antigua ciudad romana.

Desde su descubrimiento y hasta la fecha la estatua estuvo sometida a tareas de limpieza, lo que ha permitido también conservar el color ocre virando al rojo original de esta Venus desnuda, junto a la cual y sobre el pedestal se puede apreciar un niño pequeño.

La estatua en pedazos fue hallada durante las excavaciones arqueológicas de una casa de baños de la antigua ciudad romana erigida sobre la de Escitia (Scitópolis), edificada por los conquistadores griegos, y reconstruida en la última década.

Los profesionales la denominan "Venus púdica" o "modesta" porque con el brazo derecho, quebrado, tiende a ocultar los senos, y con el izquierdo, al que le falta la mano, el pubis.

Los investigadores Gideon Foerster y Yoram Tsafrir, del Instituto de Arqueología de la Universidad Hebrea de Jerusalén (UHJ), suponen que esta Venus de un metro sesenta de altura y 500 kilos de peso, se esculpió en la ciudad de Afrodisias, de Asia menor, hoy Turquía.

Su restauración ha permitido que se conserven en la estatua restos de los colores rojo, azul y amarillo con los que fue decorada, uno de los principales motivos de atracción.

El conservador jefe de restos de las civilizaciones helénica, romana y bizantina del Museo, Dudi Mevoraj, asegura que los pigmentos en la Venus de Beisán son los mejor preservados de las estatuas romanas que se exhiben en el mundo.

Foerster indicó a la prensa que esta Venus estuvo en pie durante 400 años, incluidos 150 correspondientes al período cristiano, el del Imperio Bizantino, hasta que un terremoto destruyó la ciudad, con 40.000 habitantes, el 18 de enero del año 749 d.C.

El Museo israelí exhibe la estatua como parte de una exposición titulada "La belleza en la santidad" con la que celebra el cuadragésimo aniversario de su fundación.

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Israel Museum to Exhibit Important Roman Sculpture of Venus For the First Time Since It’s Discovery
Source: ilMuseums

Exhibition hall: Israel Museum
Published on 23/03/2005
The article was read 173 times.
Life-size Work is Centerpiece of 40th Anniversary Exhibition Series


The Israel Museum, Jerusalem announced plans today to exhibit for the first time a rare and unusually well-preserved 2nd century CE Roman Venus sculpture. Unearthed in Beth Shean, in the Jordan Valley, this exquisite work is one of the most remarkable life-size sculptures ever found in Israel. The presence of accents of red, blue, and yellow pigment remaining on its surface make this beautifully modeled and preserved Venus all the more exceptional.

The debut of this important work is a notable feature of the Museum’s yearlong 40th Anniversary programming and is the centerpiece of the exhibition “The Beauty of Sanctity: Masterworks from Every Age.” On view from March 29 through October 29, 2005, this exhibition features more than 75 objects drawn from the Museum’s comprehensive holdings, which together tell a fascinating story of how objects from ancient to contemporary times achieve sanctified status, either through ritual use or through pure aesthetic quality. The full series of anniversary exhibitions—under the theme of
Beauty and Sanctity—begins in January and continues through 2005, and underscores the breadth and richness of the holdings that the Museum has developed during its first forty years.

“We look forward to unveiling the Beth Shean Venus in the context of our 40th Anniversary exhibition year. It is an object of pure beauty that also reflects the predominant cultural beliefs of its time and exemplifies the diversity of cultures that flourished in the ancient Land of Israel,” states James S. Snyder, Director of the Israel Museum.

The statue of Venus was first discovered in 1993, beneath present-day Beth Shean, an urban center located in the Jordan Valley region of Israel, near the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee. Throughout its 7,000-year history, Beth Shean has witnessed periods of prosperity, decline, and transformation.

Unearthed in an excavation conducted by the Institute of Archaeology of The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, directed by Professors Gideon Foerster and Yoram Tsafrir, the statue dates to Beth Shean’s Roman period, which flourished between the 1st and 4th Centuries CE. Lavish public monuments, temples, bathhouses, a theater, hippodrome, basilica, and a nympheon were all built during this prosperous time. On January 18, 749 CE, an earthquake completely destroyed the city. Through their excavations, Professors Foerster and Tsafrir unearthed a magnificent group of Roman sculptures that survived the earthquake. Discovered in an enormous bathhouse, these sculptures were intended as decorations for the site. The life-size statue of Venus is considered to be the most remarkable of the items unearthed in this excavation, which also included a Dionysus, a Goddess Athena, a headless emperor, and a nymph, among others, some of which are already on display in the Israel Museum’s Roman Gallery.

Discovered without head, hands, or feet, the naked and sensually modeled Venus was broken into several pieces. Like other marble sculptures found in the Beth Shean excavations, it was also covered with a thin hard layer of travertine which adhered to the sculpture’s surface over the 1,250 years that it lay under ruins, but which did not obscure the quality of its molded body lines or the notable amounts of paint preserved on its surface.

From 1994 through 2004, the Israel Antiquities Authority and then the Israel Museum’s Objects Restoration Laboratory conducted careful cleaning and restoration. Their work finally revealed the full splendor of the sculpture’s classical form, decorated with red, blue, and yellow pigment. The fragmentation of the sculpture, the Cupid at Venus’s side, and the dolphin that serves as Cupid’s seat and as the support for the entire composition, presented special restoration challenges with respect both to the preservation of the work and to its display. Following a decade of restoration effort, the Beth Shean Venus can now be displayed in the round, enabling a full appreciation of its original sculptural intent.