This female figure belongs to a group of similar statues associated with Venus (the Greek Aphrodite), the goddess of love and the epitome of feminine sexuality. Her thin but voluminous tunic clings to the forms of her firm, rounded body, and as she raises her right hand (now missing) to adjust the mantle draped across her back, the tunic slips down seductively from her left shoulder and breast.

This style of dress, called "wet drapery," provided a means of revealing the body when a fully nude female statue was still unthinkable in Greek art. It appeared first on figures in the Parthenon's east pediment and became increasingly fashionable in the late fifth century B.C. The Romans adapted this manner for representations of Venus Genetrix, the mother of Aeneas and, as such, the ancestress of the Roman race and of the Julii, the family to which Julius Caesar and Augustus belonged. The political clout of the Julii in the late first century B.C. and the first century A.D. greatly enhanced the popularity of Venus Genetrix, who received a cult statue in Rome.

The same figure type was adapted for representations of mortal women, from empresses to ordinary ladies, in order to stress their Venus-like qualities-above all, fertility. It is likely that this statue once supported a portrait head with the individualized features of a Roman woman, perhaps showing signs of advanced age. Although modern viewers might find this combination jarring, the Romans were unconcerned about joining the head of an older woman to a youthful body, valuing symbolic significance over visual consistency.

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