ITALIAN, FOLLOWER OF PIETRO CIPRIANI (ITALIAN, C.1679-1745), LATE 19TH/20TH CENTURY

The famed Venus de' Medici has garnered extraordinary admiration since it was acquired by the Medici family in the late 16th Century. By 1688, the marble figure was moved from Rome to the most famous room in Europe, The Tribuna at the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence and gained such a reputation for its beauty, it was singled out by Napoleon’s governmental retinue as being one of the antiquities that could not be allowed to remain in Italy after the French invasion. The absolute ideal of feminine beauty in model and form, several statues of this type were known by the 18th century, all ultimately inspired by the immortal Aphrodite of Knidos by Praxiteles from the 4th Century B.C.

In 1722, Lord Parker, son of the 1st Earl of Macclesfield observed the Venus de’ Medici in The Tribuna and commissioned Cipriani to make casts of it as well as the Dancing Faun for Shirburn Castle, his father’s newly acquired estate. Lord Parker leveraged his connections to gain special access for Cipriani to work directly from the statues in The Tribuna (E. Wright, Some Observations Made in Travelling Through France, Italy &c. In The Years 1720, 1721 and 1722, London, 1730, ed. 2, 1764, p. 412). Cipriani’s cast of the Venus de’ Medici arrived at Shirburn Castle in early 1725 and remained with the Earls of Macclesfield until its sale at Christie’s, London, 1 December 2005, lot 64, and is now housed at the J. Paul Getty Museum (inv. 2008.41.1). Cast in bronze, the figure no longer required the dolphin-shaped marble support on the Venus de' Medici. The present model, also in bronze, measures approximately half the height of the Cipriani cast.