Nicosia: Antiquities from Cyprus will be exhibited for the first time outside of the country in the autumn exhibition at the University of Oxford's Ashmolean Museum. Titled 'The Making of a Goddess', the exhibition traces Aphrodite's journey and transformations, spanning 5,000 years from her earliest origins in Cyprus to the present day.
According to Cyprus News Agency, the Ashmolean's autumn exhibition explores 'one of the ancient world's most enduring cultural icons'. The exhibition brings together archaeology, sculpture, painting, contemporary art, and fashion to trace Aphrodite's journey and transformations from her origins in the eastern Mediterranean through the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, via Renaissance Europe, to contemporary society's ongoing fascination with her.
Highlights of the exhibition include iconic ancient sculptures such as the Crouching Aphrodite from the Royal Collection and a Capitoline Venus on loan from the Louvre, Botticelli's Venus from the Gem¤ldegalerie, Berlin, and modern works by Yves Klein and Michelangelo Pistoletto. Jonathan Anderson's Loewe dress, worn by Beyonc©, will also be featured. These will be joined by exceptional loans from Cyprus itself, many of which have never been shown outside the country before.
Aphrodite's story begins in Cyprus, the island where she first emerged as a goddess. From these origins grew the myths that made Aphrodite famous, told by the great writers of the ancient world like Homer and Virgil. The exhibition explores these myths with ancient vases, sculpture, jewellery, and other antiquities such as the Louvre's mosaic from Tunisia showing Aphrodite sailing on a barge.
The exhibition also examines the cult of the goddess in ancient Cyprus and her evolution from much older traditions of female deities worshipped across the eastern Mediterranean, including Astarte and Ishtar. Visitors will see the earliest known representation of Aphrodite, a unique copper alloy figurine dating to around 1200 BCE. A recreation of an Aphrodite sanctuary using loans from Cyprus and major international collections will demonstrate how Aphrodite was worshipped and depicted in ancient Cypriot art.
Rediscovered during the Renaissance, ancient sculptures of Venus inspired generations of artists, collectors, and rulers. The exhibition concludes with modern and contemporary visions of Aphrodite, whose image has long served as a focus for society's changing ideas about women, femininity, and female beauty.
The exhibition is curated by Dr Anja Ulbrich, a leading expert on Cypriot archaeology and female deities of Cyprus. She expressed her fascination with Cyprus and its ancient culture, stating that Aphrodite has been at the centre of her work. The exhibition brings together antiquities and European art to tell the story of how a goddess worshipped in ancient Cyprus became one of the most enduring figures in human history.
Dr Xa Sturgis, Director of the Ashmolean, expressed gratitude to the many institutions and colleagues who made the exhibition possible, particularly the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus. He noted that the exhibition brings together exceptional loans from Europe and North America alongside objects from the Ashmolean's collections, tracing more than 5,000 years of history and offering a new perspective on Aphrodite.
The exhibition will be open from 8 October 2026 to 11 April 2027.
