Venus is the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Aphrodite. She holds the apple that Paris, the naked young man, gave her as a prize in a beauty contest. Her son Amor, the god of love, stands at her feet. The sculpture has great similarities with Venus de Milo, found on the Greek island of Melos in 1820. Fogelberg had seen it in Rome. This sculpture was considered a representation of absolute beauty, and today can be found in the Louvre.