Callipygian Venus
probably John Cheere (London 1709 – London 1787)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1765 - 1766
Materials
Lead
Measurements
1575 mm (Height)
Order this imageCollection
Stourhead, Wiltshire
NT 562878
Summary
Lead sculpture, Callipygian Venus, probably by John Cheere (1709 – London 1787). Lead statue of Callipygian Venus after the antique. The original marble statue is now in the Museo Nazionale, Naples (moved there between 1786-92). It was first recorded in the Farnese collection, Rome in the caption of a print published in 1594 and which Aldrovandi described in 1556 as holding a towel having just come out of the bath (definitely in Villa Farnesina by 1767). The lead cast was probably made by John Cheere in 1765-66, for Temple of Apollo, from Matthew Brettingham junior's 1754 moulds.
Makers and roles
probably John Cheere (London 1709 – London 1787), sculptor after Matthew Brettingham the Younger (1725 - 1803), mould maker
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, no.83, p.316.