BRONZE FIGURE OF VENUS Modelled on the Hellenistic Venus Medici, France, 18th century. Bronze with remnants of a dark patina. Type of Venus pudica (prudish Venus), slightly bent forward and turned to the left side. Mounted on a later dark marble base. H 35.5 cm. Base with chips. This figure was modelled on a monumental marble statue discovered and excavated in Rome around 1630, which was created in the 1st century BC. The marble statue was brought to Florence in 1677 and exhibited in the Uffizi Gallery. The figure was taken up by the artists of the time and adapted in a reduced form as a bronze statue. One interpretation by Massimiliano Soldani Benzi (1656-1740) is known, another by Pietro Cipriani (ca. 1679-1745). Both, as well as the figure offered here, are strongly orientated towards the antique model, but do without the Cupid riding a dolphin. The figure corresponds to the anitque type of Venus pudica, the prudish Venus, who is trying to conceal a breast with one hand and her shame with the other.