Venus, called the Richelieu Venus
Unknown · Second century AD (head and bust modern)
A goddess in a thin tunic that has slipped from one shoulder stands on an oval base, a belt low on her hips and sandals on her feet, with a small Cupid perched on a rock at her side. The fine, clinging folds of the drapery are the best part of the statue and are Roman work of the second century, following a Greek model of the classical age. The bare bust and the head, with its calm oval face, are modern: when the statue was restored, nothing above the drapery survived, and of Cupid only the feet remained, so the whole child was recarved.
Look at the front edge of the base: a Greek inscription there, a sculptor's signature, is also modern, added to give the marble a more prestigious pedigree. The statue takes its name from Cardinal Richelieu, whose collection of antiquities was among the finest in seventeenth-century France and later passed to the crown. It was seized during the Revolution and arrived at the Louvre in 1801.
Did You Know? The Greek signature on the base is a modern forgery meant to make the statue look more precious.
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