Identify this marble statuette of a woman

January 23, 2018 11:41 AM

Can anyone identify this classical marble statuette of a nude kneeling woman, and help me find info about its maker, history, etc? It's in the collection of the Palacio de las Dueñas, formerly of the Duchess of Alba in Seville Spain, and it may be a status of Venus. I've found two images of it online: Pic of statuette, pic of duchess with statuette in foreground.

It seems to have different bases in these two pictures, so I also wonder if there might be a pair of sculptures rather than just one.

A relative had a statuette very like this, and I'm trying to figure out if they were reproductions of the Duchess's original, and/or who the sculptor was, etc.

posted by LobsterMitten to Media & Arts (6 answers total)

Best answer: Judging from wikipedia, it seems like just a super popular theme from back in the ancient day.
posted by mattamatic at 11:47 AM on January 23, 2018 [2 favorites]

Yes, it's a theme from antiquity. This one looks very neoclassical and maybe by Canova or a copy of one by Canova, but lots of searching hasn't given a good result for me.
posted by mumimor at 12:05 PM on January 23, 2018 [1 favorite]

This is a plaster copy of the Roman "original" which in itself was a copy of an earlier Greek work.
posted by mumimor at 12:09 PM on January 23, 2018

There's a very similar Roman Venus in the British Museum. I used to have a picture of it, but I'm not sure if I can find it.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 1:23 PM on January 23, 2018

The British Museum one is the Lely Venus.
posted by urbanlenny at 1:27 PM on January 23, 2018

Response by poster: These leads are extremely helpful, thank you! With these search terms ("Crouching Venus", who knew), my current best guess is that the version I know was by an Italian artist like Barzanti (or Barzetti?) who catered to the 19th century Grand Tour tourist. Will see if I can get confirmation of that.
posted by LobsterMitten at 1:52 PM on January 23, 2018