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Preview image of work. lead,  Toilet of Venus 6922
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1967.20.42.a

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Toilet of Venus

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Artist

Antonio Abondio (Riva del Garda, trento, 1538 - 1591, Vienna)

Title

Toilet of Venus

Creation Date

ca. 1587

Century

16th century

Dimensions

3 11/16 in. x 2 13/16 in. (9.3 cm. x 7.2 cm.)

Object Type

plaquette

Creation Place

Europe, Germany

Medium and Support

lead

Credit Line

Gift of Amanda Marchesa Molinari

Copyright

Public Domain

Accession Number

1967.20.42.a

Object Description

379 TOILET OF VENUS, ca. 1587
A bust of Venus, her head turned slightly to the left, her breasts exposed and a pearl earring in her left ear. Behind, a servant holds a braid by a cloth out to the right; a second servant on the left, partly cut off by the border, combs her hair. At the right. Amor embraces the goddess and raises a mirror with his left hand. Above, the artist's monogram, AN AB (superimposed).

Lead, oval, 93 x 72 mm.

An example at the National Museum in Budapest is dated 1587. A detail in gilt gypsum depicting Venus and Amor can be found on a cabinet of Rudolf the Second at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (Habich, G., Schaumuenzen 2, 2, p. 485, fig. 503a) ; a lead cast in Nuremberg, Germanisches Museum (Fiala, E., Antonio Abondio, Prague 1909, no. 87, pl. 9, 4). Habich (Ibid., p. 507) mentions a variation: an oval model (in stone? -ex coll. Felix: Felix Collection, Catalogue Heberle, Cologne 1896, no. 910) as an imitation dating from the seventeenth century. A drawing by Paul Zeggin, done in 1618, is in Munich at the Graphisches Sammlung (Nagler, G. K., Kunstlerlexikon 22, 1852, p. 280; same author. Die Monogrammisten, Munich 1858, 4, no. 3416).
Other specimens: (lead) Basel, Historisches Museum; Budapest, National Museum; Hamburg, Museum fuer Kunst und Gewerbe; London, Victoria and Albert Museum; Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum; Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum; Prague, Kunstgewerbemuseum; Stuttgart, Wuerttembergisches Landesmuseum; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum; (bronze) Basel, Historisches Museum.

Bibl.: Molinier, no. 355; Fiala, E., Antonio Abondio, Prague 1909, p. 47, no. 86, pl. 9, 3; Planiscig, no. 459; MacLagan, p. 45, no. 5412-1859, pl. 12; Weber, no. 650. Auction catalogs: Frank Collection, Cubasch, Vienna, 18 January 1904, no. 956; Riechmann & Co., Halle/S., Catalog 6, 12 March 1913, no. 434, pl. 16; Cahn, Frankfurt/M., Catalogue 37, 7-9 March 1918, no. 69; Riechmann & Co., Halle/S., Catalog 17, 22-23 February 1921, no. 789, pl. 10; Collection Lanna II, Lepke, Berlin, 21-23 March 1911, no. 304, pl. 25.