Since you are here, dear ones, we bid you welcome. We are Afrodite by MG, a luxury jewelry brand that merges culture and design. Our jewels are crafted with the utmost care in Valenza and Naples, secular home to the art of cameo, and our name is an homage to the Greek Goddess of Love and Beauty, Afrodite. Now, we probably know which curiosity brought you to read this article. Thinking of the Goddess of Love and Beauty, one can’t help but wonder about her bodily aspect. If her attribute is beauty, after all, her appearance must be the most striking of the whole world. Who wouldn’t be curious about how does she look?
Is she blond, or thin, does she have freckles, is her skin as dark as the night or as white as milk? Is she curvy, or lean, are her fingers long or stubby, is her hair curly or silky?
It is only natural to have such questions, it’s human to look for standards to see where we position ourselves in comparison. But let’s take a step back. Do you think it is possible to give an objective evaluation of beauty? To say, with fool-proof certainty, that a person is more beautiful than another? If we look at history, we see that the standards of attractiveness changed across societies and centuries.
In Ancient Rome, blue eyes were considered shabby, while the brown iris was deemed the most fascinating one. In Egypt, a thick black mane was the utmost goal, contrary to Renaissance’s rage for the Titian red, what we now call strawberry blond.
Even the body shape varies in popularity, and in some times different bodies were deemed more beautiful than the others. In this article we have some examples of paintings across the world and history: you can see that some women have a more generous behind, some are heavier on the belly, some are tall, some are short. But, from the first to the last, they were and are all deemed beautiful. And we are only talking about a few specific places and times, imagine the myriad of standards we have and had all around the world!
Who are we to say which is the most beautiful?
In our products, for Afrodite’s cameos, we take inspiration from the Ancient Greek statue the Venus of Milo. But this is only one representation of what could be Afrodite, of what could be beautiful. Look for Aphrodite Anadyomene from Pompei, and Aphrodite Anadyomene by Titian. They represent the same subject, yet they look like two different women.
So, who is Afrodite? What does she look like?
Well.
What makes your heart beat.
What takes your breath away.
What makes your cheeks tingle, and your stomach flutter, and your head lighten.
That is beautiful, that is Afrodite. And this is where you can find us.
Author:
Benedetta R Fanelli
Benedetta R. Fanelli 25, Milan. Art Historian graduated from Brera Academy of Fine Arts with a master degree in Management of Fashion from Bocconi. Benedetta has always been enamored with luxury and greek mythology, and she loves to tell stories behind our jewels.