Venus
This is a copy of Antonio Canova’s so-called ‘Hope Venus’, made for the politician and patron of the arts, Thomas Hope, in about 1820, and now held at the Leeds Art Gallery. The composition is also generically referred to as ‘Venus Pudica’, consisting of a female nude with her left hand on her right breast, clutching a cloth and looking left.
Canova was an Italian Neoclassical sculptor, famous for his marble sculptures. Often regarded as the greatest of the Neoclassical artists, his sculpture was inspired by the Baroque and the classical revival.
