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This tall, dark metal sculpture consists of a nude woman standing atop an elaborate, tiered base crowded with human faces, seated people, animal forms, and scrolling ornament. The woman stands with one leg slightly bent and her head turned to our right. Her hair is gathered up, and drapery hangs from her raised left hand and falls behind her shoulder and opposite arm. A twisting, branch-like support rises behind her legs. Directly below her, two partially draped, curly-haired people sit facing one another beneath a projecting ledge decorated with a central face and curling forms. The broader section below is densely ornamented with additional faces, floral motifs, and animal heads projecting from either side. At the bottom, four large reclining animal forms, perhaps dogs or other creatures, spread outward to create the sculpture's wide base. Their bodies are covered with rounded protrusions and textured details, and shaggy heads extend toward the corners. Smaller human-like forms and garlands fill the spaces between them. The dark surface varies from nearly black in recessed areas to lighter bronze-gray highlights on projecting forms. The sculpture is photographed against a plain light gray background.
National Gallery of Art · Sculpture
Andiron with Figure of Venus
Venetian 17th Century, partly after a model by Tiziano Aspetti
- Date
- c. 1600/1675
- Medium
- bronze
- Dimensions
- overall: 103.4 x 56.3 x 40.2 cm (40 11/16 x 22 3/16 x 15 13/16 in.)
- Classification
- Sculpture · Utilitarian Object
- Accession number
- 1961.9.101
- Credit line
- Samuel H. Kress Collection
- Time span
- 1551 to 1600
- Department
- CSD
Subjects and terms
- Venetian
- classical
- mythology
- Renaissance
- Venus
- European Small Bronzes before 1900
- Veronese
Provenance
Baron Adolphe de Rothschild [1823-1900], Paris; Baron Maurice de Rothschild [d. 1957], Paris; Clarence H. Mackay [1874-1938], Roslyn, New York by 1925;[1] (Jacques Seligmann & Cie., New York); purchased 1948, probably through (French & Co., New York),[2] by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York; gift 1961 to NGA. [1] Published by Valentiner in 1925 and 1926 as in the Mackay collection and as having come from the Rothschild collection. [2] After Mackay's death his collection was dispersed by Seligmann; records from the Kress Foundation, now in NGA curatorial files, indicate that French and Co. was involved in the 1948 acquisition.
NGA object ID 46200. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.