A superbly carved early C19th `Grand Tour` marble sculpture of the crouching Venus in good scale. The nude goddess half-kneels on an integral naturalistic base, her arms crossed in front of to conceal her nudity, her head turned to her right, and her hair partly coiled in a bun with a plain strap diadem at the back of her head and Hellenistic type armlet to her left upper arm. Resting behind her is an upturned vessel. The whole figure mounted on a grey veined marble plinth with beaded moulding and canted corners. With wonderful patina built up over the years and preserved in excellent condition. Circa 1830.
24.5" high x 14" wide x 11.5" deep.
 
Similar sculptures can be seen in the Louvre, Paris; the Museo Nazionale delle Terme, Rome; the Uffizi, Florence; the Vatican Museums, and the Royal Collection. This version most closely resembles the marble in the Vatican Museums, which was excavated at Salona (modern Solin near Split, Croatia)  in the second half of the eighteenth century.