Scuola italiana (XIX) - Sculpture, Busto della Venere Italica - 42 cm - Marble

19th century
Bust of the Italic Venus
Marble, 42 x 23 x 13 cm

This 19th-century white marble bust depicts a young woman with her head slightly inclined and her gaze turned to one side, her expression serene. Her hair, gathered into soft braids at the crown and arranged in wavy locks across her forehead, is rendered with a delicate chiaroscuro effect that contrasts with the smoothness of her face and shoulders. A fold of drapery slips across her chest, leaving the bust exposed. The work rests on a small circular veined-marble pedestal, typical of collectible busts. The sculpture echoes the face of Antonio Canova’s Italic Venus, now housed in the Palatine Gallery at Palazzo Pitti in Florence. The original was created as compensation for the transfer to France of the Medici Venus, taken by Napoleon’s troops during the looting of Italian works of art, and the sculptor drew on that model for inspiration. Installed in the Uffizi Tribune in 1812, in the place of the Medici Venus, it was later moved to Palazzo Pitti. Canova portrayed the goddess in the act of covering herself with a cloth, perhaps surprised by someone’s arrival, in keeping with the classical theme of the Venus pudica, for which famous ancient precedents existed. This sculpture is a product of the Neoclassical period: it reflects the theories of Johann Joachim Winckelmann, who saw in Greek art the pursuit of ideal beauty and “noble simplicity and quiet grandeur.” Far from the turmoil of passions and emotions, the face is composed and serene. Idealization remained the defining feature of 19th-century sculpture inspired by Canova, which continued for decades to reproduce the master’s models and those of antiquity.
Works of this kind, in smaller dimensions and often made of white marble or alabaster, were produced by Italian workshops, especially in Florence and Rome, for Grand Tour travelers, who bought them as mementos of the masterpieces they had admired during their stay in Italy. The bust presented here therefore bears witness both to the popularity of a Canova icon and to the collecting tastes of an age that turned antiquity into an object of remembrance and a means of engaging with classical antiquity in the home.

The frame is provided free of charge and therefore cannot be grounds for a return or complaint.

For paintings purchased abroad: after payment, the process of obtaining the export license (ALC) will begin. All antiques shipped abroad from Italy require this document, issued by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage. The process may take 3 to 5 weeks from the date of application; the painting will be shipped as soon as we have received the document.