Among the masterpieces of the Capitoline Museums of Rome we also find this representation of Venus, known as Venus Esquilina from the place of discovery, that Esquiline hill which a couple of centuries ago jumped to the headlines of the time precisely for the discovery of this very refined sculptur, even in excellent condition, if you think about the dating.

The Esquiline Venus, in fact, is a Roman marble statue of the 1st century b.C., which still hides many curiosities and questions. Try to think, for example, that this female statue, perhaps, does not really represent Venus. There are some attributes that usually are not related to this goddess, like the snake that coils around the vase. This animal could represent the ureus, a symbol of royalty from the Egyptian era. We also have the sandals that the figure wears, something absolutely unusual for a statue of Venus. According to some interpretations, therefore, perhaps this work in parian marble would be the famous Cleopatra, queen of Egypt of whom Mark Antony fell in love (but before him also Julius Caesar). Or, according to others, it would be nothing more than an assimilation of Venus with Isis, one of the main deities of the Egyptian Pantheon, whose cult depopulated in 1st century Rome, especially among the slaves and the less well-to-do classes. If this were the case it would be nothing strange but, on the contrary, it would underline how the different local cults merged together, over the centuries, due to commercial exchanges, military domination and, more generally, the cultural infiltrations that different peoples contributed, reciprocally, to give themselves.

In addition to this, despite the disappearance of the arms (among the most fragile elements of a sculpture), we are sure that this figure was arranging locks. In fact, some fingers twisted around hair are preserved, like a woman holding her hair before taking a bath, in an attitude that was typical of Venus and her divine beauty. An almost human gesture, a gesture that brings us back to other representations of Venus intent on letting itself be bathed by the water, or on coming out of the water as per its mythological origin. Despite everything, and despite the many hypotheses that have been made over the centuries, it is certain that this sculpture is one of the most bewitching of the entire collection of the Capitoline Museums of Rome, like other sculptural wonders like this one, for example.