Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Venus de' Medici Displayed and Copied

Venus de' Medici
Hellenistic marble copy of an earlier bronze original
displayed in the Tribuna of the Uffizi Gallery, Florence

"At some time in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century the Medici had acquired a Venus and taken it to the family villa on the Pincio [in Rome]. It is astonishing that we should know so little about the circumstances of its discovery, because before very long it was to rival, almost to eclipse, the fame of the Apollo Belvedere and the Laocoön : it was indeed the last statue to be granted a place in this particularly hallowed sanctuary of the musée imaginaire." 

"In 1638 Francois Perrier devoted three illustrations to the Venus de' Medici, and six years later Evelyn found that 'certainly nothing in Sculpture ever approached this miracle of art'. Yet it seems not to have been among the replicas which Velázquez obtained for the King of Spain. There were strong doubts about the morality of this Venus, and it required the sophistry of much later writers to discover her deep spirituality. We are told that her more obvious attractions caused particular embarrassment during the pontificate of the austere Innocent XI (1676-89) and that it was for that reason that in 1677 he gave permission for her removal to Florence where (the equally bigoted) Cosimo III surprisingly gave her a place of honor in his gallery."

– Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique (Yale University Press, 1981)

Pietro Cipriani
Venus de' Medici
ca. 1722-24
copy - as bronze statuette
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Fratelli Alinari
Venus de' Medici
ca. 1856-72
albumen silver print
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Underwood and Underwood, Publishers
Venus de' Medici
ca. 1900
stereograph
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Jan de Bisschop
Venus de' Medici
ca. 1665
etching
Victoria & Albert Museum

Jan de Bisschop
Venus de 'Medicica. 1672-89
etching
British Museum

Jan de Bisschop
Venus de' Medici
ca. 1669-71
etching
British Museum

Jan de Bisschop
Eight studies of the head of the Venus de' Medici
mid-17th century
drawing
Rijksmuseum

 Augustinus Terwesten
Venus de' Medici aa a bust
late 17th century
etching
Rijksmuseum

formerly attributed to Wenceslaus Hollar
Studies derived from the Venus de' Medici
1760
etching
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Jean Norest
Venus de' Medici
1855
copy - ivory statuette
Victoria & Albert Museum

M. Geiss, Berlin
Venus de' Medici
1850s
full-size copy in zinc
Osborne House, Isle of Wight

Filippo della Valle
Venus de 'Medici (back)
late 17th century
copy - bronze statuette
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Filippo della Valle
Venus de' Medici (detail)
late 17th century
copy - bronze statuette
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Hubert Le Sueur
Venus de' Medici
1636-37
full-size copy in bronze commissioned by Charles I
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Anonymous sculptor
Venus de' Medici
ca. 1700
another full-size copy
Royal Collection, Great Britain

This once-admired statue has also been known as Grecian Venus, Marine Venus, and Venus Pontia.