The head of this 2nd-century AD sculpture is a Roman copy of the the Knidian Aphrodite (Aphrodite of Knidos), the famous sculpture created by Praxiteles in around 360 BC. In the Boncompagni Ludovisi collection, where it was at first identified as Niobe, the work was used as a model for a 17th-century restoration of the statue of the Knidian Aphrodite.

The Aphrodite of Knidos was one of the most famous works of the ancient Greek sculptor Praxiteles of Athens (4th century BC). It and its copies are often referred to as the Venus Pudica ("modest Venus") type, on account of her covering her naked pubis with her right hand. Variants of the Venus Pudica (suggesting an action to cover the breasts) are the Venus de' Medici and the Capitoline Venus.

The Knidian Aphrodite has not survived. Possibly the statue was removed to Constantinople (modern Istanbul) and was lost in a fire during the Nika riots. It was one of the most widely copied statues in the ancient world, so a general idea of the appearance of the statue can be gleaned from the descriptions and replicas that have survived to the modern day.