Leone Clerici Italian, 19th Century

Haskell states that the original statue, now in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, is first recorded in the Farnese collection by 1594. In the late 18th century it was moved, together with the rest of the Farnese collection, from Rome to Naples, having spent some time in the studio of the restorer Carlo Albacini. He revised some of the restorations to the head, arms and legs. The statue depicts Venus demurely admiring her reflection and is called “Callipygian” which means “of the beautiful buttocks.”  The original is thought by Robertson to be possibly connected with the shrine of Aphrodite Kallipygos at Syracuse.

Leone Clerici specialised in careful reproductions of famous antique sculptures, copies of which were in great demand long after the end of the era of the Grand Tour. From his studio in Rome, signed works by him that have appeared on the market including busts of Alexander the Great (1875), Caesar Augustus (1876) and Marcus Aurelius (1887) and figures of Psyche (1886), the Capitoline Venus (1886) and Canova's Venus Italica (1870).

RELATED LITERATURE Taste and the Antique pp.316-7, no.83, fig.168