Rare Grand Tour marble Medici Venus

Rare, very elegant good quality 19th century Grand Tour marble library statue of the Venus Pudica or 'Venus de' Medici' on a mixed marble and alabaster base, after the antique marble original in the Medici collection in the Tribuna of the Uffizi in Florence. The statue depicts the goddess in a momentary pose, as if surprised, in the act of emerging from the sea, to which the dolphin at her feet alludes. Attractive example superbly carved and unusually retaining the posts to strengthen the piece on the hands/arms for transit. Some minor old repairs. Provenance: Eleanor Davis Collection. Eleanor Davis was a member of the Worth/Baldwin family, whose relatives included Stanley Baldwin, Rudyard Kipling, WH Auden, Sir Edward Poynter and Edward Burne Jones. Italy, probably Florence, circa 1860.

Venus: H 45.5cm x W 14cm x D 16.5cm
Base: H 17.5cm x W 19.5cm x D 19.5cm
Total: H 63.5cm x W 19.5cm x D 24cm 

SOLD