Detail of Venus Italica by Canova in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, November 2009

Title: "Venus Italica"

Object Name: Female Nude

Workshop of: Antonio Canova (Italian, born in Possagno, active in Venice and especially Rome, 1757–1822)

Culture: Italian (Rome)

Date: probably ca. 1822–23, variant of marble first executed 1810

Medium: Marble

Dimensions: Height: 69 in. (175.3 cm)

Classification: Sculpture

Credit Line: Bequest of Lillian Rojtman Berkman, 2001

Accession Number: 2003.21.1

On View

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/collection_database/all/ve... Antonio&fp=1&dd1=0&dd2=0&vw=1&collID=0&OID=120029159&vT=1&hi=0&ov=0

and

Canova's first marble Venus is in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. Known as the Venus Italica, it was ordered in 1804 by Ludovico I, king of Etruria, as a replacement for the ancient Medici Venus that had been taken by the French for the Musee Napoleon. This replica, believed have to been purchased from Canova's studio by the third marquess of Londonderry when he was visiting Rome in 1823, remained in Londonderry House, London, until 1962.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.