“Aphrodite (Venus)”
Roka Hasegawa(1897-1967)
1931(Showa 6)
Fresco
109.0 x 110.5 cm

This work was painted for a research room in Building 13 on the West Waseda campus. It was transferred to the museum without alteration. In 1996, Kyouko Genda, one of the artist’s students, restored it. The painter of this work was an associate of the architects Jiro Konwa and Kenji Imai. Imai’s first project was the construction of Waseda’s former library, the current site of the Aizu Museum, so perhaps it was fate that a painting from one of his other buildings should end up here. Roka Hasegawa was a graduate of Waseda University. The mosaic on the floor of Tougo Murano’s Elevator Hall is also his work, as well as the inspiring fresco in the Kitami Catholic Church. When painting a fresco, the wall is first spread with a carefully balanced mixture of lime and sand. The fresco is painted impromptu on top of this mixture. The work may be based on Bernardino Capitelli’s “Aldobrandini Marriage,” a fresco in the Vatican based on an older Hellenistic model. The Aphrodite of this painting bears a strong resemblance to the woman in the center of Capitelli’s fresco sitting to one side of the bride, although Roka chose to cover Aphrodite’s breasts in his fresco. Roka’s fresco is a reimagination and magnification of the Italian fresco.