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| Crouching Venus Roman marble copy of an earlier Hellenistic work Uffizi Gallery |
The Crouching Venus, as seen above, has been on display at the Uffizi in Florence since the 17th century, although never in the Tribuna. Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny in Taste and the Antique describe the numerous copies and other reproductions that testify to this statue's one-time popularity. This Crouching Venus was extremely visible and prominent, but in fact many similar statues or fragments survived. When comparative assessments were made, the famous Uffizi statue was usually slighted in favor of other versions at the Vatican and in London.
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| Domenico de Rossi Crouching Venus ca. 1704 etching, engraving Philadelphia Museum of Art |
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| Doccia Manufactory, Florence Crouching Venus ca. 1750 full-size copy in porcelain Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Doccia Manufactory, Florence Crouching Venus (detail) ca. 1750 full-size copy in porcelain Victoria & Albert Museum |
The version of the Crouching Venus in London (below) is on loan to the British Museum from the Royal Collection. Agents working for King Charles I were able to buy this ancient marble in Italy from the Gonzaga in the 1630s..
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| Crouching Venus Roman marble copy of an earlier Hellenistic work British Museum |
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| Crouching Venus Roman marble copy of an earlier Hellenistic work British Museum |
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| Crouching Venus Roman marble copy of an earlier Hellenistic work British Museum |
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| Crouching Venus Roman marble copy of an earlier Hellenistic work British Museum |
There were demonstrations of rage and despair in Rome when the statue below was sold to Louis XIV in 1685 and shipped to France. In response, the Pope of the day was forced to impose "stringent new regulations" on the export of antiquities.
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| Germanicus Roman marble portrait statue imitating an earlier Greek prototype Louvre |
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| Félix Massard Germanicus 1801 engraving Philadelphia Museum of Art |
The historical Germanicus had been a national hero who died tragically young in AD 19 (probably poisoned at the will of his uncle, the Emperor Tiberius). The Death of Germanicus became the subject of Nicolas Poussin's first major masterpiece (below) painted in Rome at the end of the 1620s.
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| Nicolas Poussin Death of Germanicus 1628 oil on canvas Minneapolis Institute of Arts |
Agrippina the Elder, widow of Germanicus, was endowed like her husband with a posthumous reputation for exemplary virtue. Benjamin West painted her in the 18th century (below) carrying home her husband's ashes from the remote province where he died. A life-size marble statue on display in Rome since the 16th century gained great fame only in the 18th when it confidently came to be called the Seated Agrippina and identified with the noble widow.
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| Benjamin West Agrippina carrying the ashes of Germanicus 1770 canvas Philadelphia Museum of Art |
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| Seated Agippina (or Helena) Roman marble statue of the 4th century Capitoline Museum |
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| Marco Ricci A Ruin Caprice with Roman Motifs The Seated Agrippina is visible on a pedestal at far left ca. 1725-30 oil on canvas Royal Collection, Great Britain |
Today the Seated Agrippina is labeled at the Capitoline Museum as Helena (mother of the Emperor Constantine and discoverer of the True Cross).