Alison Whyte | Venus With Cupid: Discoveries in the Conservation Lab

Venus with Cupid: Discoveries in the Conservation Lab
ISAC Museum Special Exhibition Lecture
Every conservation treatment begins with an investigation: How was the object made? What materials were used to construct it? And what has happened to it since it was created? Join ISAC conservator Alison Whyte to learn more about the discoveries made during the examination and treatment of OIM A30908, a statuette of Venus with Cupid, currently on display in the OI Museum special exhibition Making Sense of Marbles, Roman Sculpture at the OI, on view from September 15, 2022-March 12, 2023 (oi.uchicago.edu/marbles).
Originally aired November 2022
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2023, ISAC
Music credit: bensound.com

[@TheSuzberry]

Very interesting. Thank you.

[@nokomarie1963]

Really interesting, but I still have strong objections to the head. It just looks all wrong to me.

[@pattheplanter]

The live plant shown at 23:31 and 31:29 is definitely not madder. Madder ( _Rubia tinctorum_ ) has small yellow, star-shaped flowers and a whorl of single leaves around the stem. The photo looks like a _Rubus_ to me. Though which of the 1400+ species it is, I would not like to hazard a guess. It is certainly one of the Rosaceae family, not the Rubiaceae family that contains madder and Bengal madder, field madder, Indian madder, petty madder, wild madder, etc. The root specimen is possibly correct, I have only seen much younger roots.