Venus de' Medici
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1801 - 1899
Materials
Bronze
Measurements
1560 x 480 mm
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 515115
Summary
Bronze, Venus de' Medici, Italian or French School, after the antique, c. 1801-1899. A life-size bronze of the Venus de' Medici, cast after the antique marble statue first recorded in the Villa Medici, Rome, 1638, now in the Tribuna of the Uffizi, Florence. The goddess is depicted having emerged from the sea, looking to proper left, covering her modesty with both hands; a dolphin ridden by two miniature putti at her proper left foot. A lost-wax cast with black patination and green oxidisation; mounted on a moulded and panelled pink and white marble pedestal.
Full description
No provenance or acquisition record exists for this reduced copy of the Venus de Medici in bronze, and it does not have a founder's mark. In comparison to 18th century castings, like the full-size bronze cast made by Massimiliano Soldani Benzi (1656-1740) which used to stand in the gardens of Blenheim Palace, this is a relatively poor copy which suggests it was made in the 19th century. Bronze castings of antique statues were rarely produced in Britain, so it is likely that this figure was produced on the Continent, probably in France or Italy. Alice Rylance-Watson 2019
Provenance
Bequeathed to the National Trust by Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966) with the house and the rest of the contents.
Credit line
Anglesey Abbey, The Fairhaven Collection (The National Trust)
References
Haskell and Penny 1981: Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique, The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500 - 1900, New Haven and London, 1981, pp. 325-8, no. 88, fig. 173 Roper 1964: Lanning Roper, The Gardens of Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire. The Home of Lord Fairhaven, London 1964, p. 61, pl. 37. Christie, Manson & Woods 1971: The National Trust, Anglesey Abbey, Cambridge. Inventory: Furniture, Textiles, Porcelain, Bronzes, Sculpture and Garden Ornaments’, 1971, p. 157. Davis 1991: John Davis, Antique Garden Ornament, 300 years of creativity: Artists, manufacturers & materials, Woodbridge 1991, pp. 155-6.