A Persistent First-Century Fashion Trend

How do you describe a work of art?

With art terms, of course! We’ve heard you, and we’re here to answer your Frequently Asked Art Questions (FAAQs).

Let’s take a look at Venus Genetrix, a helpful art term for identifying Roman sculptures.

Watch the video, or read on below!

Does the above outfit look familiar? Perhaps you’ve seen it in a museum, or maybe on a celebrity.

When an archaeologist finds a statue—especially one missing its arms and head like this example—how do we know who it’s of? One way is by observing what the depicted figure is wearing.

This statue is a Venus Genetrix. You may know Venus as the Roman goddess of love, but did you know that she has another aspect?

Here’s a quick history lesson: In 48 BCE, after a decisive battle, Julius Caesar gave himself a divine relative (Venus) by naming her as the foundress of his family (gens).

Caesar’s adoption of Venus was an important moment in Western literature and art. It inspired Virgil’s epic poem Aeneid and also Roman replicas of this statue type. First created in Greece in about 420–410 BCE, the initial bronze model was copied by sculptors for the next millennia, including this example in the Getty Museum’s collection.

The most defining aspect of a Venus Genetrix is her dress: a clingy, sleeveless chiton (a type of tunic) that is so figure-hugging that it almost looks wet. When archaeologists, or museum visitors like you, spot a statue wearing this garment, you can be fairly sure that you’re looking at a powerful ancestor.

Surprisingly, this gown still holds meaning today. Called the wet or wet-look dress, it’s been resurrected by modern Greek designer DiPetsa and worn by Lizzo in her musical ode to Greek beauty and GiGi Hadid to honor the beginning of her own gens.