Cast of Esquiline Venus, 19th century

After Unidentified Roman sculptor

RA Collection: Art

This cast was taken from a marble statue, now in the Capitoline Museums, Rome, which was excavated from the Esquiline Hill, Rome in 1874. The discovery of the sculpture inspired paintings by Victorian Neo-classicists, such as Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s ‘The Sculptor’s Model’ (1877) and Edward Poynter’s ‘Diadumenè’ (1884).

The original statue depicts the goddess Venus and is thought to be a Roman copy made in the 1st century AD of a Greek original dating from the 1st century BC.