French, First Half 18th Century, After the Antique

The present pair of bronzes are copies of two celebrated antiquite sculpture: the Venus de'Medici and the Belvedere Antinous. Most likely originally cast in bronze in the 4th century BCE, Roman marble copies were rediscovered during the Renaissance and the models gained notoriety after they entered the esteemed collections of the Medici Villa and the Antinous the Belvedere Palace, both in Rome.¹

^1.F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique, New Haven 1981, (as catalogued) pp. 316-318, illus. fig. 168. and pp. 141-143, illus. fig. 73.