Venus Italica
after Antonio Canova (Possagno 1757 - Venice 1822)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1816
Materials
Marble
Measurements
1740 mm high
Order this imageCollection
Attingham Park, Shropshire
NT 609428
Summary
Marble sculpture, Venus Italica, after Antonio Canova (Possagno 1757 - Venice 1822), 1816. A life-size statue of Venus Italica, taking a step forward with left leg and holding drapery up to her naked body. She is wearing hair tied up and dressed with ribbons. A small rectangular sarcophagus on paw feet on an oval base is behind her right foot, mounted on a columnar plinth. A replica of Antonio Canova's 'Venus' in the Pitti Palace, it was commissioned in 1816 by Colonel Norcliffe, the original version having been completed in 1811. Canova's workshop was in Asolo, in Italy, where Edith Teresa Hulton, the last Lady Berwick was born.
Provenance
Believed to have been purchased from Canova in 1816 by Colonel Norcliffe (1791 - 1862) from whom it descended to Lt - Colonel Howard Vyse of Langton Hall, Malton, Yorkshire; sold at Christie's 22nd July 1926 and bought by 8th Lord Berwick for 190 guineas; bequeathed to the National Trust with the estate, house and contents of Attingham by Thomas Henry Noel-Hill, 8th Baron Berwick (1877-1947) and accepted, 15th May 1953
Makers and roles
after Antonio Canova (Possagno 1757 - Venice 1822), sculptor