her unclothed. As the goddess of sexuality, a degree of erotic beauty in her presentation was justified, which appealed to many artists and their patrons. Over time, venus came to refer to any artistic depiction in post-classical art of a nude woman, even when there was no indication that the subject was the goddess. The Birth of Venus (Botticelli) (c. 1485) Sleeping Venus (c. 1501) Venus of Urbino (1538) Venus with a Mirror (c. 1555) Rokeby Venus (1647–1651) Olympia (1863) The Birth of Venus (Cabanel) (1863) The Birth of Venus (Bouguereau) (1879) Venus of Cherchell, Gsell museum in Algeria Venus Victrix, and Venus Italica by Antonio Canova In the field of prehistoric art, since the discovery in 1908 of the so-called "Venus of Willendorf" small Neolithic sculptures of rounded female forms have been conventionally referred to as Venus figurines. Although the name of the actual deity is not known, the knowing contrast between the obese and fertile cult figures and the classical conception of Venus has raised resistance to the terminology. Gallery See also History of nude art Love goddess Planets in astrology#Venus Hottentot Venus Venus (planet) Venus symbol Notes References Bibliography Beard, M., Price, S., North, J., Religions of Rome: Volume 1, a History, illustrated, Cambridge University Press, 1998. Beard, Mary: The Roman Triumph, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., and London, England, 2007. (hardcover). Champeaux, J. (1987). Fortuna. Recherches sur le culte de la Fortuna à Rome et dans le monde romain des origines à la mort de César. II. Les Transformations de Fortuna sous le République. Rome: Ecole Française de Rome, pp. 378–395. Eden, P.T., "Venus and the Cabbage," Hermes, 91, (1963), pp. 448–459. Hammond, N.G.L. and Scullard, H.H. (eds.) (1970). The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (p. 113) Langlands, Rebecca (2006). Sexual Morality in Ancient Rome. Cambridge University Press. . Lloyd-Morgan, G. (1986). "Roman Venus: public worship and private rites." In M. Henig and A. King (eds.), Pagan Gods and Shrines of the Roman Empire (pp. 179–188). Oxford: Oxford Committee for Archaeology Monograph 8. Nash, E. (1962). Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Rome Volume 1. London: A. Zwemmer Ltd. (pp. 272–263, 424) Richardson, L. (1992). A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press. (pp. 92, 165–167, 408–409, 411) Room, A. (1983). Room's Classical Dictionary. London and Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul. (pp. 319–322) Rüpke, Jörg