AFTER BARTHÉLÉMY PRIEUR (CIRCA 1536-1611) Woman cutting her nails Small bronze figure of a nude woman, seated on a stump covered with drapery. Her head is covered by a bonnet. She is holding her right foot with both hands, her right hand holding a pair of scissors (scissors) to cut. Her left foot resting on the ground. Three bronze tenons, one under the foot on the ground, two under the stump. France, first half of the 17th century. Height: 11.1 cm - Width: 5.5 cm Depth: 7.8 cm (Wear, traces of gilding, on a rectangular base base in blackened wood) PROVENANCE - Nicolas de Hurtado Collection (1854 - 1920) - Probably stolen on 21 December 1937 and returned to the family on 23 December to the widow of the previous owner, née Amparo, Baroness Beyens (1859-1946) - It has remained in the family to this day. A bronze almost identical to ours and given to Barthélémy Prieur is kept at the Allen Allen Memorial Art Museum [Object number 1954.22], another with a variant (stump replaced by draperies) replaced by draperies) and attributed to the workshop of workshop of Barthélémy Prieur is now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. [Inv. no. : 1957.14.24] The subject of our small bronze has as its iconographic iconographic source is "Venus removing a thorn from from the foot", part of the decoration of the stufetta Bibbiena, created in Raphael's entourage in 1516 and partially known thanks to the engravings by Marco Dente.