Venus Italica
by CANOVA, Antonio, Marble
Canova’s Italian Venus (Venus Italica) was commissioned as a replacement for the famous Medici Venus which had been seized by Napoleon in 1802 and removed to the Louvre. (It was eventually returned.) The Medici Venus is itself a 1st century BC copy of a work by Cleomenes of Athens.
The statue is exhibited in the Hall of Venus of the Palazzo Pitti, decorated by Pietro da Cortona.