Inspired my my recent trip to Louvre, oil on canvas, 16x40.
The Venus de Milo is an ancient Greek statue and one of the most famous works of ancient Greek sculpture at the Louvre.
The great fame of the Venus de Milo during the nineteenth century owed much to a major propaganda effort by the French authorities. In 1815, France had returned the Venus de' Medici (also known as the Medici Venus) to the Italians, after it had been looted by Napoleon Bonaparte. The Medici Venus, regarded as one of the finest classical sculptures in existence, caused the French to promote the Venus de Milo as a greater treasure than that which they recently had lost. The statue was praised dutifully by many artists and critics as the epitome of graceful female beauty. However, Pierre-Auguste Renoir was among its detractors, labelling it a "big gendarme
Nevertheless, its beautiful and very powerful... my Venus is frowning a little at the world during Coronavirus pandemic.