Throughout the Roman empire, buildings both private and public were often equipped with decorative sculpture. Many of these were either direct copies or variants of Greek sculpture of the Classical or Hellenistic periods, much of which was cast in bronze. This statue shows the goddess of love nude, but trying to protect her modesty (her right arm,now missing, would have covered her left breast). The dolphin at her side, which acts as a strut to strengthen the statue, alludes to her birth in Cyprus from the foam of the sea. The putto that rides it is a generic representation of her son, Cupid. This example, remarkable for its completeness and its grace, is of the so-called Medici or Capitoline type.