What is the Venus of Medecis?

Question

It is at least 100 years old porcelain bisquie statue given to my grandmother as a present from my grandfather on 1914.

Answer 1

It is a staute of Venus, daughter of Zeus, who is the sign of fertility and earthy beauty. It was comissioned by the Medici family in Florence. They were a very influential family between 13th-15th century Florence. I wish I could tell you it was the original beccause you would be a very rich person...but it is just a copy. Since it is so old it is probably worth something.

Answer 2

The Venus de Medici is a statue dated from around 400 AD discovered in 11 pieces in Rome. It eventually found its way to Florence and the restored sculpture resides in the Uffizi Gallery.

The statue that was found appears to have been inspired by an earlier Greek sculpture on the same subject.

"The Venus di Medici is truly a subject for the little and beautiful, measuring only four feet eleven inches, and four lines in stature. This statue is exquisite in all its forms and proportions, in symmetry, in slender, round, finely-tapered limbs, in the joining of the haunch bone, in the loins—all perfect:" (From an article written in the 1900's - see oldandsold.com/articles07/travel-57.)

What you have may be a copy of or inspired by the original sculpture. If you can turn the statute over and see any marks, you might be able to find out what the value is through antique websites. Antiques Roadshow comes to mind.

Answer 3

The Venus de Medici, by Cleomenes, son of Apollodorus, a Greek artist living in Rome in the First or Second Century of the Christian Era. This universally celebrated statue was found in eleven fragments in the Portico of Octavia at Rome, for the adornment of which it was in all probability originally executed. The whole of the right and left arms from the elbow downwards are restored. Traces of gilding were visible on her hair on its first discovery; her ears are pierced for rings, and she wears an armlet on her left arm. A comparison of the Venus de' Medici' with the extant copies of the Cnidian Aphrodite leaves no room for doubt that Cleomenes drew his inspiration from that lovely darling of the Grecian world. Whether this Medici' Venus was discovered in the gardens of Nero on the Tiber, or in the Portico of Octavia, as was long supposed, is uncertain; but its inscription stating it to be by Cleomenes, son of Apollonios, is proved by Michaelis to be a falsification of the Seventeenth Century, A. D. On the removal of the statue to Florence, it was seriously broken; and its restoration was undertaken, after 1677, by Ercole Ferrata, to whom are due the lean fingers, so out of keeping with the dainty and soft feet. Venus here, in variation from the original by Praxiteles, is not represented as engaged with the bath, all intimations of which are wanting; but we simply see a nude female looking out into the world, and covering herself with both hands. Associated with her is a dolphin referring perhaps to her connection with the sea. The dolphin is ridden by a child, who serves to support her, and may be Venus's son Cupid. by L. M. Mitchell.