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'Visit of Venus to Anchises', cast after a bronze original
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'Visit of Venus to Anchises', cast after a bronze original
Plaster cast within a glazed wooden frame
Museum number: BR31
On display: Breakfast Room
All spaces are in No. 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields unless identified as in No. 12, Soane's first house.
For tours https://www.soane.org/your-visit
Curatorial note
Cast from an ancient bronze mirror case depicting Aphrodite/Venus and Anchises on Mount Ida. Aphrodite is flanked by two cupids or erotes and Anchises is accompanied by his dog (lower right).
The original bronze repoussé work mirror-case, dating from 350-320 BC, was found at Paramythia, Epirus, Greece in 1798. Today it is in the British Museum (acquired 1904 inv. 1904,0702.1). By 1800 the bronze was in the collection of John Hawkins (1760-1840) of Bignor Park, Sussex, who presented a cast of it to Christian Gottlob Heyne in Göttingen in that year. The collector Charles Townley owned a drawing of it by Tendi, acquired by the British Museum in 1814 (inv. 2010,5006.532), indicating that there was some private access to it at Bignor Park.
This cast was presented to Soane by the artist Henry Howard RA probably some time between 1832 and 1835 along with the cast of the Chellini Madonna BR30. Soane referred to this cast as 'after a bronze found at Dodona' (1835 Description).
A cast in the Thorwaldsen Collection in Denmark was there by 1834, indicating that copies must have been available on the market - on a private basis. It is not clear whether the Soane and Thorwaldsen casts date from the 1830s or were taken much earlier, perhaps coming from the same mould as the one now at the Universitäat Göttingen (1800).
The original bronze repoussé work mirror-case, dating from 350-320 BC, was found at Paramythia, Epirus, Greece in 1798. Today it is in the British Museum (acquired 1904 inv. 1904,0702.1). By 1800 the bronze was in the collection of John Hawkins (1760-1840) of Bignor Park, Sussex, who presented a cast of it to Christian Gottlob Heyne in Göttingen in that year. The collector Charles Townley owned a drawing of it by Tendi, acquired by the British Museum in 1814 (inv. 2010,5006.532), indicating that there was some private access to it at Bignor Park.
This cast was presented to Soane by the artist Henry Howard RA probably some time between 1832 and 1835 along with the cast of the Chellini Madonna BR30. Soane referred to this cast as 'after a bronze found at Dodona' (1835 Description).
A cast in the Thorwaldsen Collection in Denmark was there by 1834, indicating that copies must have been available on the market - on a private basis. It is not clear whether the Soane and Thorwaldsen casts date from the 1830s or were taken much earlier, perhaps coming from the same mould as the one now at the Universitäat Göttingen (1800).
Provenance
Presented to Soane by the painter, Henry Howard, RA (1769-1847), c.1832-35. The two casts Howard presented to Soane hang together on the south wall of the Breakfast Room and were presumably given at the same time. Each has a very deep circular glazed timber frame wth a convex piece of glass. It may be that these are the frames in which they were presented.
Literature
Cornelius C. Vermeule, 'Notes on a New Edition of Michaelis: Ancient Marbles in Great Britain', American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 59, No. 2 (April 1955), p.130
Jan Zahle, Thorvaldsen: Collector of Plaster Casts from Antiquity and the Early Modern Period, Vol. II, p.263, Thorwaldsen inventory no. L353 and Vol. III, p.252 (illustration of Thorwaldsen example).
Jan Zahle, Thorvaldsen: Collector of Plaster Casts from Antiquity and the Early Modern Period, Vol. II, p.263, Thorwaldsen inventory no. L353 and Vol. III, p.252 (illustration of Thorwaldsen example).
Soane collections online is being continually updated. If you wish to find out more or if you have any further information about this object please contact us: worksofart@soane.org.uk