CANOVA, Antonio
(b. 1757, Possagno, d. 1822, Venezia)

Venus Italica

1819
Marble
Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence

Canova's Italian Venus (Venus Italica) was commissioned as a replacement for the famous Medici Venus which had been seized by Napoleon in 1802 and removed to the Louvre. (It was eventually returned.) The Medici Venus is itself a 1st century BC copy of a work by Cleomenes of Athens.

The statue is exhibited in the Hall of Venus of the Palazzo Pitti, decorated by Pietro da Cortona.




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