Venus [Aphrodite]: the Callipygian Venus. Engraving by F. Piranesi, 1783, after T. Piroli.

1783

1 print : engraving

Venere Callipiga in atto di guardarsi allo specchio, già nel grande, ora nel piccolo Farnese. Al sig.re Sergell celebre professore dell' Accademia Reale della Pittura, e Scult.a a Stockholm, cavaliere dell' Ordine Reale di Vasa. Francesco Piranesi D.D.D. Tommaso Piroli dis. Francesco Piranesi inc. 1783

The reason for the dedication to Sergel may be the following: "Gustavus III of Sweden a decade later [1780] commissioned Sergel to copy the statue in marble, as a pair to an earlier copy of the Apollino, to be placed in the Hall of Mirrors of the Royal Palace in Stockholm. Sergel, presumably at the King's suggestion, gave the goddess the features of the Royal mistress, Countess Ulla von Höpken" (Haskell and Penny, loc. cit.)

F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the antique, the lure of classical sculpture 1500-1900, New Haven and London 1981, pp. 316-318, no. 83 (without mention of this print)

Wellcome Collection 11586i