Attributed to Massimiliano Soldani Benzi

This beautiful bronze Venus de' Medici is very close to another bronze of the same subject by the celebrated Florentine sculptor Massimiliano Soldani Benzi at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (ex Ogden Mills collection; inv. no. 27.36.8), as well as another example sold in these rooms on 2 July 2019 as lot 98.

Soldani was responsible for casting a series of fine small-scale bronzes (all circa 30cm high) of the most famous ancient and Renaissance sculptural models. Alongside the Dancing Faun and Sansovino's Bacchus (amongst others), the Venus de' Medici was one of the models selected by the sculptor, whose small-scale statuettes are recorded in the Doccia porcelain inventories, including: 'No. 17 La Venere de Medici. Con sue forme' (published by Lankheit, 1962, op. cit., p. 157). 

At least three full scale bronze Venus de' Medicis are known to have been produced by Soldani, including one commissioned by the Duke of Marlborough which remains in the collection at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire.

RELATED LITERATURE

K. Lankheit, Florentinische Barockplastik: Die Kunst am Hofe der letzten Medici 1670-1743, Munich, 1962, p. 157, figs. 13-20; C. Avery, 'Soldani's Small Bronze Statuettes after 'Old Masters' Sculptures in Florence,' in K. Lankheit (eds.), Kunst des Barock in der Toskana. Studien zur Kunst unter den letzten Medici, Munich, 1976, pp. 165-172