AN ITALIAN MARBLE FIGURE OF THE MEDICI VENUS

The famous Venus de' Medici, attracted extraordinary attention since it was acquired by the Medici family in the late 16th Century, and has been considered as one of the half-dozen finest antique statues to have survived. Several statues of the same type were known in the 18th century, all ultimately inspired by the famous Aphrodite of Knidos created by the 4th Century B.C. Greek sculptor Praxiteles, as the absolute ideal of feminine beauty both in bodily form and pose. So beloved, the Venus is one of the most copied statues of all time, and of the proliferation of copies made during the 19th century, the present example ranks among the better: being faithfully rendered and bearing the Greek inscription to the base.