AFTER A MODEL BY GIAMBOLOGNA (1529-1608)ITALIAN, FLORENCE, LATE 18TH/ EARLY 19TH CENTURY | Venus of the Grotticella

With Daniel Katz, London, 1997;
Private Collection, USA

London, Daniel Katz Gallery, 500 Years of Florentine Art, 1997

Conway Library Collections, Courtauld Institute, London. Ref: A98/228, Giambologna, 16th Century Sculpture

Giambologna is thought to have carved the Venus of the Grotticella in 1572 or 1573 for his great patron, Francesco de'Medici. The under-lifesize marble representing the Roman goddess of love was designed to surmount a fountain in the interior chamber of the grotto of Buontalenti in Florence's Boboli gardens, where it remains today. Perhaps the most ambitious of the Mannerist sculptor's female nudes, the Grotticella Venus has been hailed as 'Giambologna's masterpiece' in its consummation of the figura serpentinata principle, by which a figure is seen to be 'spiralling' from all angles (Avery, op. cit., p. 107). Her placement in a grotto underlines the erotic appeal of the figure, whose idealised female forms are exhibited effectively in this complex composition. The present marble is a rare copy and of the same dimensions as Giambologna's celebrated original.

RELATED LITERATURE
C. Avery, Giambologna: The Complete Sculpture, Oxford, 1987, pp. 97-107