garment slip from her hand on to a vase that
stands beside her; and, in addition to this provision of a motive--an
excuse, one might almost say--for representing her without her clothes,
he hints, from the instinctive gesture of her other hand which she holds
before her body, at a half-conscious shrinking from exposure, a feeling
of modesty which, however suitable to a woman, is by no means consistent
with a high ideal of the goddess. The face and figure are of
extraordinary physical beauty of type, of a breadth and nobility which
contrast with the smaller, prettier, and less dignified forms of later
art; the gesture, too, has not the conscious coquetry which we see in
such a work as the Venus de' Medici. But, on the other hand, we must
recognise that the statue represents the goddess under a human rather
than a divine aspect, that even her mood and feeling of timidity are
portrayed in a manner which, however charming in itself, is totally
inconsistent with her worship as a great goddess. We are not surprised
to hear that this statue inspired a personal passion; she is the goddess
of love, and is represented as not beyond the reach of human attraction;
but she is brought down to the level of mortals, rather than capable of
raising mortals to a higher sphere by her contemplation. It is the same,
though perhaps to a less degree, with other statues of the gods made in
the fourth century. The motives with which the later Greeks went to
visit the great statues of the Phidian age were, as we have seen, to a
great extent religious, and their contemplation was regarded to some
extent as a service; here we have "idolatry" in its highest form. But
those who went to see the Aphrodite of Cnidus went chiefly to enjoy the
beauty of the statue; and although this may be the best thing from the
artistic point of view, it certainly has not the same religious import.

There is another element in the individuality of fourth-century statues
which may appeal to modern artists, and which certainly did appeal--in
an inverted manner--to early Christian writers of invectives against
pagan idolatry. It was said that Phryne had posed as a model for the
Cnidian Aphrodite of Praxiteles; and the character of the goddess was
inferred from that of her votary. It is clear that a Greek artist could
not have, in the case of a nude female statue, the same choice of types
constantly present to his observation and his memory as he had in the
case of male sta