Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 6 pages
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Source Description
This Venus, with her legs close together and a hand covering her genital area, is a "Venus Pudica," modest or chaste Venus. Her gesture implies awareness of an unexpected gaze: the viewer's.A nearly identical statuette (in the Basel Historisches Museum, Switzerland) was owned by the collector Basilius Amerbach (1533-91), who believed the statuette to be ancient. Both statuettes have silver-inlaid eyes, a feature copied from antique bronzes, as are Venus's corkscrew curls. The pose is derived from a much-studied ancient torso in a Roman collection. It is possible that these statuettes were created as "antiques," for which there was great demand.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
39155
label
Modest Venus (Venus Pudica)
core
obj
dtoType
object
citationUrl
pageCount
6
Source metadata
id
39155
sourceUrl
contentType
object
stage
normalized
title
Modest Venus (Venus Pudica)
description
This Venus, with her legs close together and a hand covering her genital area, is a "Venus Pudica," modest or chaste Venus. Her gesture implies awareness of an unexpected gaze: the viewer's.A nearly identical statuette (in the Basel Historisches Museum, Switzerland) was owned by the collector Basilius Amerbach (1533-91), who believed the statuette to be ancient. Both statuettes have silver-inlaid eyes, a feature copied from antique bronzes, as are Venus's corkscrew curls. The pose is derived from a much-studied ancient torso in a Roman collection. It is possible that these statuettes were created as "antiques," for which there was great demand.
provenance
Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1904 [mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
date
ca. 1500 (Renaissance)
citationUrl
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Metal
statuettes (statues)
imageCount
6
pageCount
6
source
import
dimensionsRaw
H: 10 1/2 in. (26.7 cm)
Source extras
med
bronze with dark brown lacquer patina, silver
creator_ids
33562
collection_ids
REN
exhibition_ids
3137
Page inventory
seq
1
type
photo
mediaId
cbb87fc4a80cd079
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
2
type
photo
mediaId
e13508b1424316cc
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
3
type
photo
mediaId
9d2085405500b55c
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
4
type
photo
mediaId
f591756e7436e4b4
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
5
type
photo
mediaId
8e9ca5108a4215b1
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
6
type
photo
mediaId
a893fc5cd9be8a51
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no