Venus

Milanese 16th Century (model attributed to Francesco Brambilla the Younger)

National Gallery of Art

This free-standing bronze sculpture is of a nude woman who reaches her left arm, on our right, across her body to hold a piece of drapery bunched at her opposite hip, while she holds a conch seashell in her other hand. In this photograph, her body faces us and she looks down and to our right. She has a straight nose, and her full lips are closed. Her long, wavy hair is gathered into a knot at the top of her head, and a few tendrils trail down her neck and shoulders. Her sloping shoulders frame round breasts, which are placed close together on her chest. Most of her weight is on her left leg, on our right, and her other knee is bent so she balances on the ball of that foot. This means her hips sway slightly to our right as her arms sweep to our left. She stands on a round, disk-like plinth on a veined, tan marble base. Light glints off the polished, deep brown bronze surface of the sculpture.