Townley Venus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Townley Venus is a 2.14 m (7 ft) high 1st or 2nd century AD Roman sculpture in Proconnesian marble of the goddess Venus, from the collection of Charles Towneley.
Adapted from a lost Greek original of the 4th century BC, the goddess is half-draped, with her torso nude. The arms were restored in the 18th century and the statue was set in another plinth, thereby changing the original pose and viewpoint.[1] If the restoration is correct, her arms are in a pose reminiscent of the Venus of Capua or Venus de Milo, and like them she may have held a mirror.
Townley Venus was found in the ruins of the Baths of the Emperor Claudius in Ostia by Gavin Hamilton in 1775. Hamilton was sent a letter to Townley in January 1776, informing Townley of the statue's existence. After Townley learned of the statue, the two quickly entered negotiations.[2] The two reached an agreement in May 1777, historians are unsure whether it was sold for £600 or £700.[2][1] Hamilton didn't send the statue to be noted in Rome, even shipping the statue in two pieces to avoid sending the statue to Rome.[2]
It was sold to the British Museum in 1805[3] as Registration Number 1805,0703.15 and Sculpture 1574, and is usually on display in Room 84, although it went on tour to the 2007 Praxiteles exhibition at the Louvre.[1]
In 2012, Townley Venus was damaged and then fixed when someone knocked off part of the statue's hand.[4]
The statue was damaged in December 2015 when a waiter working in the museum accidentally hit the right hand which knocked off the thumb but it has since been restored.[3]
