Eloquence or Venus with a Tortoise Bronze figure of a standing nude woman standing naked, a drape on her left side held by a belt and falling to her feet. Her right foot is resting on a tortoise. In her right hand she is holding a scroll of parchment. Northern Italy, 16th century. Height: 23 cm (Wear, minor knocks, mounted on a blackened blackened wood base) 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. This rare iconography is probably an allegory allegory of eloquence, as suggested by the document the document she is holding and the tortoise she is triumphing over; it could also evoke the earthly emergence of the goddess Venus and her marine birth as depicted by Phidias himself on the pedestal of the on the base of the Zeus of Olympia.