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Short Stuff: Venus de Milo · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, I'm welcome to the short stuff. I'm josh, there's chuck.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Neither one of us have four arms, which means that
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: this is the short stuff about Venus de Mila. Let's go.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: That's right. Who resides in the louver, right? I think
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: since eighteen twenty one when Louis the what is that
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: eight No, yeah, the eighteen man. You threw me off.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Always forget how to read those. It's been a while. Yeah,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Louis the eighteenth donated Venus de Mila, one of the
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: most famous dare I say statues in the world. Yeah. Also,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: just as a little a side chuck, if you ever
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: kind of get tripped up by something like that, you're
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: talking to somebody, just swap it out for like a
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: word like Louis the Magnificent, but say it authoritatively and
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: the person will think that that's the name for that
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: particular right, Louis the Overeater. So yeah, So the Venus
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: to my Hello first ended up in Paris in eighty one.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Apparently that was um that was a really good timing
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: because the nation of France was kind of in the
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: doll drums as far as art is concerned. Right, Yeah,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: there's a gentleman that will make a couple of appearances
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: in this episode. His name is Andrew Stewart, and uh,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: I think he's a professor right art art historian and professor, Yeah,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: professor of Greek Studies at UC Berkeley emeritus too. Oh well, yeah,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: the guy knows what he's talking about. Yeah. So apparently France, uh,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: they needed their national pride kind of picked up, and
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: apparently Venus went a long way toward doing that. Yeah,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: because Napoleon had sacked a bunch of countries and city
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: states and nations art collections plundered, and after the French Revolution,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Um well no, that was way after the French Revolution,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: after Napoleon was banished, We'll say that France had to
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: give back a lot of that art. So the Louver
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: kind of got sacked in verse. And then also the
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: big dumb rival England, from France's vantage point of course,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: not mine, had just acquired the Elgin Marbles, which meant
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: that they had a some sculpture by the greatest sculpture
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: of antiquity known to humanity. Faddists, Yeah, I got it. Um.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: So the Venus de Milo comes along and they're like this, this,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: this is the most important thing I ever found. Let's
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: um bandy it about as much as possible as such. Yeah,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: and the whole thing with Venus de Milo is sort
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: of the mystery surrounding the origins and who the artist
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: was and who maybe she had been she may have been,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: and and of course the big question is two questions,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: what happened to those arms and what will those arms
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: are doing right before they were broken off, which I
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: have to admit I'd never thought of until reading this. Yeah,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: I just never thought of her arms were doing anything
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: of note, it's kind of weird now that think about it.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: But the funny thing is is, like you said, she
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: shrouded in mystery as to her identity. But the one
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: thing we know for certain she is not is Venus,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: the goddess of love to Rome. She was Greek and
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: produced by the Greeks, so she would have been aphrodite
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: at best, but we're not even sure she's aphrodite. She
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: could be a number of other people that have been proposed,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: or a number of other goddesses. It didn't even have
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: to be a goddess, right, No, it didn't. I saw
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: that she could have been an everyday person. But also, um,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: she was found on me losch Uh, the Greek island
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: which was really engaged in the sea as far as
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: trade and fishing and all that. So some people have
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: supposed that she was um actually Amphra Tidy in Amphatidy
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: is there an r in there, thank you chuck, um,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: that she's the goddess of the sea, Poseidon's old lady.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: As far as iikers would say, Yeah, and in Venus
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: was always thought to be classical, but I think they
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: did enough digging and found that she was actually neo classical,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: uh and not classical, although they say they sometimes still
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: refer to her as a masterpiece of the classical classical genre. Yeah,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: because she again kind of carries France's national ego on
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: her shoulders. Um. So the idea that she was you know,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: created by some unknown master far back in antiquity, um,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: in the classical period is is kind of you know,
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: part of France's pride in this thing. But supposedly, yeah,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: they figured out there was a German archaeologist named Adolph
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: seriously fort Wrangler, I love that man's last name, foot
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: thinker who that's even better, who basically said, yeah, she's
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: she's neo classical. You can tell from how she's dressed.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: But then I guess they also when she was found,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: they discovered a pedestal that had the sculptor's signature UM
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: that showed that she was very clearly created UM by
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: a guy named Alexandro's of Magnesia, not to be confused
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: with the milk of Magnesia, but that would be. But
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: then they lost it. They conveniently lost this pedestal and said, no, no,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: this this is clearly created by one of the masters.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: We just don't know which one, right, So good set up.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: I think we should take a little break and talk
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: about those arms. I'm dina know about the arms right
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: after this. Well, now we're on the road, driving in
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: your truck. Want to learn a thing or two from
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Josh can chuck it stuff you should know, all right? Arms? Yeah?
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: So again, never thought that her arms were doing anything.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: I think I just assumed she was being like like, hey,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: how's it going, I'm holding my hands out here, yeah,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: or maybe like I don't know kind of thing um.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: But there there has been a lot of debate about
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: what was going on with her arms. Apparently, at some point,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: an arm that would fit this statue, the venus de
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: milo Um an arm holding an apple was found, and
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: they think it's possible. Some people think it's possible that
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: that was originally attached to the venus to Milo. Yeah,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: and we should also point out there were some other
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: things missing from the original statue, like originally she supposedly
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: had metal jewelry bracelet earrings in a headband because they're
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: little fixation holes on those places in her body. And
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: they think that she might have also been painted at
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: one point and now that had it away, and then
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: the arms were I guess maybe some people might think
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: if they never looked into it, that you never had
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: the arms, but they were broken off because you can
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: see where that there were the dowel rods and everything.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Because it wasn't carved as one big piece. You know,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: these arms were put on afterward. But um, yeah, like
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: you said, they found an arm with an apple, and
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: some people are like, well, yeah, she was holding an
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: apple on one of those hands, which actually fits. There's
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: a Greek myth called the Judgment of Paris about a
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: mythological um contest between Aphrodite, the goddess of love, hera
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Zeus's wife, and Athena, the goddess of war and um
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: this contest between them was won by Aphrodite and the
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: prize was an apple, So this would have kind of
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: commented on the judgment of Paris and Aphrodite winning this.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: And apparently it's symbolic of like the choice that that
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: people have in life, or that men back in ancient
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Greece had right. So, um, your your choice in life
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: was between love, war and politics, Aphrodite Athena or hera
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: um and the Aphrodite one that people wanted to they
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: wanted they wanted to live with their heart. That's what
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: the statue symbolize in that sense. Yeah, and that's one
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: take on it. Um. I like this other one a lot.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: This woman Elizabeth Wayland Barber, who's professor Emerita of Archaeology
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: and Linguistics at Occidental College, which I used to live near.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: So I'm all about that. Um. She says, you know
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: what I think, And and she even did like this
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: three D renderings to sort of prove her point. She said,
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: I think she was a regular lady who was weaving
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: um thread. And she said, if you look at the
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: angle of the back and and ladies were doing all
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: this textile work back then, if you look at her
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: positioning and the way she was leaning and even where
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: exactly she was looking. It looks to me like she
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: was spinning thread. And they if you, you know, if
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: you look online, she has their pictures of her three
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: D rendered spinning the thread and it looks real enough
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: to me for someone who knows nothing about spent the
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: thread spinning. Well. Also, not only that, apparently the musculature
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: of her shoulders and arms, um, would be about what
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: you would expect for somebody who was spinning. She makes
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: a weird position. Yeah, well, she makes a really good case.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: But also she this doesn't even need to be a
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: statue of just an ordinary person because apparently she says
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: Aphrodite was also the goddess of spinning, well, the goddess
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: of procreation and love. Um, so this would fit still anyway. Yeah,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: that's a good point. Um. I did see another thing
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: that said, you know, from the angle of her back
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: that they said, it's one of those things where retroactically
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: you look back and it's like, you know, did Mona
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Lisa have a disease or something? And they said, did
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Venus de Milo have some sort of spinal condition? Because
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: when you look at the way her back is twisted
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: and angled. It is a very irregular um route for
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: the spine. But you know it's also a statue. Is
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: it one of those things that would be that would
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: be explained by the spinning position? Well, I mean it,
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: she says. It matches what could have been a spinning position.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: But a spinning position could have been hard on your back. Maybe,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I would guess it would be hard
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: on your back for sure. It doesn't sound like something
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: I'd wanted to so the Venus de Milo. If you
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: haven't ever seen it, go see it. It's pretty neat.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: It's in the loop. You can get there pretty easily,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: especially if you're vaccinated against COVID nineteen. Good test. Uh,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: since I said COVID nineteen, everybody that means short stuff
• 10:44
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• 10:49
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