Footnotes

• Provenance:
  Acquired with the purchase of the owner's previous house
  
  Literature:
  On the original of the often-copied "Venus Genetrix" type, the thin chiton has slipped down from the left shoulder, so that the left shoulder and breast are bare. The so-called Venus was considered to be Caesar's ancestress. Copies of this type can be found in the Louvre in Paris, the Museo Nazionale in Naples, the Villa Borghese in Rome, the Uffizi in Florence and in the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York. There are also five in the Museum in Ostia. For later statues such as our example, there were alterations to this original composition which show the drapery laid in a rounded bundle on the right shoulder and wearing the 'Roman' belt. For a close parallel of a sculpture from Ostia, cf. Margaret Bieber, Ancient Copies - Contributions to the History of Greek and Roman Art (New York 1977), pl.27, fig.151

Saleroom notices

• This lot will require an export licence in order to leave the EC