After Antonio Canova (1757-1822) | Italian, Rome, early 19th century | Venus Italica

The present bronze follows one of Antonio Canova’s most celebrated marbles, his Venus Italica. The original work was ordered in 1804 by Ludovico I, King of Etruria, to replace the Medici Venus, a Hellenistic sculpture found in 1566 near the Trajan Baths in Rome, which had been taken by the French for the Musée Napoleon. Today Canova’s marble is housed at the Palatine Gallery in Florence. The Venus Italica has been replicated frequently in marble, though more rarely in bronze.

RELATED LITERATURE
G. Cunial, M. Pavan and M. Guderzo, Antonio Canova: Museum and Gipsoteca, Museo e Gipsoteca Antonio Canova, Possagno, 2009, pp. 184-185