Antonio Frilli

The present carving was most certainly inspired by the Venus de' Medici, one of the most famous Hellinistic marbles depicting the goddess of love. By 1638, the antique figure of Venus was located in the Villa Medici in Rome, from which she acquired her name. In 1677 the sculpture was sent to Florence and installed in the Tribuna of the Uffizi, where she remains to this day. Thought to be a Graeco-Roman adaptation of the fabled Aphrodite of Knidos by Praxiteles, the Venus de’Medici counts among the most glorified statues from antiquity, and its beauty inspired countless copies throughout the centuries, including plaster casts, full-size marbles and reductions in bronze.