Lot 8 , After the Antique. A late 19th century Italian carved white marble figure of Venus Anadyomene

After the Antique. A late 19th century Italian carved white marble figure of Venus Anadyomene standing semi-draped, her hands adjusting her hair, signed P.Tomasi, on integral naturalistic base, 30cm wide, 96cm high
£3,000-5,000
Venus Anadyomene (from Greek, "Venus Rising from the Sea") is one of the iconic representations of the goddess Venus (Aphrodite), made famous in a much-admired painting by Apelles, now lost, but described in Pliny's Natural History, with the anecdote that the great Apelles employed Campaspe, a mistress of Alexander the Great, for his model. According to Athenaeus, the idea of Aphrodite rising from the sea was inspired by the courtesan Phryne, who, during the time of the festivals of the Eleusinia and Poseidonia, often swam nude in the sea.

The subject never entirely disappeared in Western art, and revived greatly in the Italian Renaissance, with further boosts in the Baroque and Rococo, and in late 19th-century Academic painting.

Condition:
Overall rather dirty with some weathering particularly to the hair, her right arm has been broken in several places as has the raised locks of her hair and since rejoined with mixed result, signed in the naturalistic base, was once mounted upon a pedestal and now requires a new base to correctly support it as it now has a sticking out section to the foot.

Sold for £2,800