Aphrodite: The Making of a Goddess

Aphrodite: The Making of a Goddess is open at the Ashmolean Museum in the John Sainsbury Exhibition Galleries, running from 8 October 2026 to 11 April 2027. It follows Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, beauty and desire, through her earliest origins on Cyprus, across the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, into Renaissance Europe and up to the present day.

There are over 150 objects on display. Among them is the Crouching Aphrodite (c. 199 CE) from the Royal Collection, a Capitoline Venus (c. 160 CE) on loan from the Louvre, and Botticelli's Venus (c. 1490) from the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin. You'll also find Yves Klein's Blue Venus (1962), Michelangelo Pistoletto's Venus of the Rags (1974), a Romano-Celtic bronze figurine found at Woodeaton, and a Loewe dress worn by Beyoncé, designed by Jonathan Anderson. A Smartify audio guide narrated by classicist Natalie Haynes is available for £5.

At the centre of the show is Praxiteles's Aphrodite of Knidos (c. 350 BC), the first fully nude female figure in ancient Greek art and the source of the Venus Pudica pose, which we know today through Roman copies like the Capitoline Venus. That same pose was revived by Renaissance masters including Botticelli, Raphael and Titian, and later by Rubens, Velázquez, Modigliani and Yves Klein. The exhibition contrasts the mythological birth of the goddess from sea foam with a historical version that places her emergence around 1200 BC, drawing on older Middle Eastern goddesses like Ishtar, Astarte and Hathor. Over the millennia her image has shifted from the warrior aspect worshipped by the ancient Greek navy to Beyoncé arriving on stage in a giant clam shell. The show has drawn four-star reviews from The Telegraph and The Times.

Tickets are £8 to £18.10, and advanced booking is recommended. The exhibition is curated by Dr Anja Ulbrich and runs until 11 April 2027 at the Ashmolean on Beaumont Street.