Venus sitting

Description

The visitor can observe the elongated and very elegant forms, distinguished, by a pictorial rendering of the surfaces; in which are recognizable characters close to the modes of Giambologna, found, even in the fine execution of the vaulted head, as often in the works of the Flemish sculptor. Despite atmospheric deposits, the vividness of the limbs is clearly perceptible. From the Vascellini engravings it is known that in the now missing hand, there were two small flutes, perhaps already of restoration at the time, which favored a reading of it as an allegory of 'Music.' At the moment there is no information about a different provenance, but it is highly probable that the present arrangement of the Aesculapius as a pendant is to be referred to the Leopold period. The Aesculapius in fact arrived in Boboli from Pratolino in 1773.