CIRCA 1ST-2ND CENTURY A.D.

Details

A ROMAN BRONZE VENUS
CIRCA 1ST-2ND CENTURY A.D.
7 in. (17.8 cm) high

Provenance

French private collection.
with Galerie Samarcande, Paris.
Antiquities, Sotheby's, London, 11 July 1988, lot 166.
with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, 1989.
John W. Kluge (1914-2010), Charlottesville, Virginia, acquired from the above, 1989.
The Morven Collection of Ancient Art, Christie's, New York, 8 June 2004, lot 505.
with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, acquired from the above.
with Seaby Antiquities Gallery, London (Advert in Minerva, November-December 2004).
with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York.
U.S. private collection, Miami, Florida, acquired from the above.
with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, acquired from the above, 2008 (Art of the Ancient World, vol. XX, 2009, no. 59).
Acquired by the current owner from the above, 2009.

Literature

C.C. Vermeule and J. M. Eisenberg, Catalogue of the Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Bronzes in the Collection of John Kluge, 1995, no. 89-50.
J. Spier, "Roman Bronzes," in M. Merrony, ed., Mougins Museum of Classical Art, Mougins, 2011, p. 135, fig. 14.

Exhibited

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, From Olympus to the Underworld: Ancient Bronzes from the John W. Kluge Collection, 26 March-31 June 1996.
Musée d'Art Classique de Mougins, 2011-2023 (Inv. no. MMoCA301).

Sale room notice

Please note that the fourth line of the provenance in the printed catalogue should read:

with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, 1989.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Claudio Corsi Specialist, Head of Department

ccorsi@christies.com +44 (0) 20 7389 2607

Lot Essay

The goddess of love is depicted nude, reaching her right hand to her raised left foot. She is crowned with a crescentic diadem, and draped with a flowing mantle, once forming an arching canopy behind her head. Her wavy hair is centre-parted and pulled into a ponytail, with tendrils falling forwards over each shoulder.

For a similar depiction of Venus unbinding her sandal and framed in arching drapery, see the example from Rome, now in the British Museum, no. 186 in Schmidt, "Venus" in LIMC.

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