19th Large Marble Sculpture Italic Venus

Venus Italica, imposing sculpture in white Carrara marble, Roman atelier from the mid-19th century.

Antonio Canova created several sculptures depicting Venus. The first was made as compensation for the transfer of the Medici Venus to the Louvre, France, in 1802, following the Peace Treaty of Tolentino signed by Pope Pius VI.
The artist was inspired by the “ideal”, trying to reinterpret the beauty of the flesh, its heartbeats, the unusual movement resulting from the flexibility of the body, and paying calibrated attention to its forms. Canova’s invention implicitly renewed the aesthetics of neoclassical sculpture; instead of producing a copy of an ancient marble, he experimented with a new proposal. He called his Venus “Italic”, in a certain sense, to claim a strong sense of nationality for a people who had seen their artistic heritage stolen.

Our sculpture, of excellent quality, was created around the mid-19th century from a single block of dazzlingly white Carrara sculptural marble. In excellent condition, it has never undergone restoration.

Measure
H cm 135
L cm 36