Venus

Object belonging

One's own

Category

Terracotta sculpture

City

Rome

Location

Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia

Specific location

Terracotta store, cabinet O, shelf 2

Inventory

PV 13254

Material and technique

Terracotta/ patina

Author

Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (1717-1799)

Dating

c. 1750-1765

Dimensions

50x22x11 cm.

Origin

Cavaceppi Collection (1799); Torlonia Collection (last quarter of 19th century); Gorga Collection (1948)

Image copyright

SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma

Short description

Between 1763 and 1764, Henry Temple, the second Viscount Palmerston (1793-1802), visited Rome on several occasions in the course of his busy tour of Italy. He managed to acquire numerous antique sculptures, thanks to the help of Gavin Hamilton, including a fine marble depicting Venus (or a Muse), now in the family home in Broadlands (Hampshire). Cavaceppi made a terracotta model of this work, and perhaps restored the marble version itself before it was sold to Palmerston. The lower part of the small figure is covered by a finely draped mantle and rests her left leg on a rock; the position of the torso and her elegantly crossed arms lend a fluidity to the whole composition.

Cristiano Giometti 

Bibliography

M. G. Barberini and C. Gasparri (eds.), Bartolomeo Cavaceppio scultore romano (1717-1799), exh. cat., Rome 1994, p. 101; C. Brook - V. Curzi (eds.), Roma e l'Antico. Realtà e visione nel '700, exh. cat., Rome 2010, p. 423.