Bronze Venerina leaning against an amphora Neoclassical Period

.

Venerina leaning against an amphora Neoclassical Period Late 18th-early 19th century Bronze, dark bronze opaque patina 265mmx 95mmx 85mm excluding the plinth.   This type of  bronze sculptures depicting Venus in balance on one foot, caught in the act of drying herself or removing a sandal, are mostly free interpretations of a Greek-Roman prototype known in various examples and materials. Among the many variants in museum and private collections, one can recall the bronze model at the Archaeological Museum of Padua and the one from the excavations of Herculaneum from the mid-18th century, preserved in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. The version studied here refers to these iconographic models, reworking the original motif by incorporating an amphora on which the goddess remains while drying herself with a softly falling drapery on the same vessel. This small bronze was probably meant to suggest a sense of antiquity, in line with the neoclassical archaeological taste of the time. Bibliography Mark Gregory d'Apuzzo, La Collezione dei Bronzi del Museo Civico Medievale di Bologna, Libro Co., San Casciano Val di Pesa, pp. 355-35

please look at the pictures she has been repaired on the knee and there is a hair line crack on the base of the towel at the back but this could have occurred during casting. she stands on a old marble plinth