Venus. Giambologna (Douai, 1529-Florence, 1608). From the model of Florence, probably 17th century. Patinated bronze with greenish traces. Jasper base.

Measurements with base 16.5 x 5 x 5 cm. The bronze 12.5 x 5 x 6 cm.

The model for this very rare Venus is thought to have been made in the workshop of Giambologna (Avery-Radcliffe).

There is a version very similar to ours in the Museum of Fine Arts, Dijon, with the only difference that that one rests on a flat circular base, while ours does not.

The same subject, but with the addition of a child, is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, attributed to Antonio Susini. Another is at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, considered to be from the school.

Our bronze statuette rests on a beautiful antique cube-shaped base, veneered in red jasper, perhaps Sicilian.

Given the rarity of this casting, it can be assumed that it was made in Florence in an environment close to Giambologna's models.

Bibliography:
Charles Avery-Anthony Radcliffe, Giambologna Sculptor to the Medici—Exhibition Catalogue, (Edinburgh, London and Vienna), 1978–79, pp. 66–67.