Did you know that a copy of a Roman statue in the Louvre is on display in the Guinardo?

The gardens of Mas Revetllat-Pla, in Guinardó, have exhibited for almost a century a copy of the Roman statue known as Venus or Aphrodite of Fréjus, which is kept in the Louvre Museum.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
25 May 2022 Wednesday 23:23
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Did you know that a copy of a Roman statue in the Louvre is on display in the Guinardo?

The gardens of Mas Revetllat-Pla, in Guinardó, have exhibited for almost a century a copy of the Roman statue known as Venus or Aphrodite of Fréjus, which is kept in the Louvre Museum. The statue is part of a fountain designed by the architect Adolf Florensa as part of the old estate, now converted into a house-museum of antiquities.

The Louvre statue, dating from the 1st century BC, was found in 1650 in the town of Fréjus, in the south of France. Initially it was installed in the Tuileries Palace and later in Versailles, until it arrived at the great Parisian museum in 1803 after the French Revolution. The Venus of Fréjus is actually one of several known copies made in Roman times of a bronze statue by the Athenian sculptor Callimachus in the 4th century BC. Today, this work is lost, but some of the aforementioned copies survive.

The Florensa fountain is in the noucentista style. The copy of the Venus occupies the central body. Like her sisters, she holds in her left hand the apple of discord that, according to legend, was fought over by Athena, Hera and Aphrodite herself to decide which of the three was the most beautiful. He defeated Aphrodite after promising Paris, who acted as referee, that he would be loved by the most beautiful woman in Greece.

The fountain and the copy of the Venus are very close to the entrance to the Mas Revetllat-Pla complex located on Mare de Déu de Montserrat avenue. The gardens of the farm, owned by a pharmaceutical family, are currently public, while the house was converted in 2015 as the aforementioned house-museum. Thanks to Florensa, this corner of Guinardó has —albeit in copy— a part of the history of Greco-Roman art.