The statue shows the Roman goddess Venus, equivalent to Greek Aphrodite. She is just about to take a bath and trying to hide her nudity by covering her pudency and breasts with her arms and hands. She is turning her head to the left and stares into the distance. On her parting is a big hair bow. The remaining hair is loosely led back and falls down her neck in two thick pigtails. This extraordinary hairstyle underlines the beauty of the statue.
The vessel with the bath towel next to the goddess is an addition of the Roman copyist.
The depiction of the naked Venus just before bathing was first created by the Greek sculptor Praxiteles. It was a very popular motive throughout Hellenism, which came to us through several marble copies of the Imperial Roman Period.
(U.T.)