K. Bender, 2007. — 156 p.
Numerous books and essays have been written about the iconography and the iconology of Venus and many art exhibitions were organized during the past decades, showing the continuing interest in the subject (see a list of exhibitions below). No other mythological personage than Venus has been so often on stage. The reader interested in the iconography of Venus (or Aphrodite), in the iconology and history of her perpetual ambivalent presence and attention in our society, may find a support in this catalogue, besides a selected up-to-date bibliography of the subject. The aim of the Topical1 Catalogue is to offer a comprehensive list of artworks with the subject ‘Venus’. The catalogue entries are the artworks, ordered by 18 main topics and, - within a topic or subtopic - listed chronologically, giving essential details on the date, the artist, the title(s) of the work, the type of work and its size, the owner and the source(s) of information. The identification is based solely either on the Roman name ‘Venus’ (or her Greek counterpart ‘Aphrodite’) in the title of the work - given by its creator or used by the owner - or on the subject closely related to ‘Venus’, e.g. the story of the ‘Judgement of Paris’ or the “Tale of Psyche”. In general, no attempt has been made to interprete artworks which seemingly refer to Venus but which do not bear her name in the title. In a few cases, however, such artworks are identified in this catalogue if the owner or art scholars explicitely refer to Venus in the description of the artwork. Works related to the paleo-historic so-called Venus are not considered.
