The Lely Venus is a marble statue of the
crouching Venus
The ''Crouching Venus'' is a Hellenistic model of Venus surprised at her bath. Venus crouches with her right knee close to the ground, turns her head to the right and, in most versions, reaches her right arm over to her left shoulder to cover he ...
type. It is a copy of a
Hellenistic
In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...
original by Doidalses of Bithynia and dates from the
Antonine period.
History
The statue is first recorded in the
Gonzaga
Gonzaga may refer to:
Places
*Gonzaga, Lombardy, commune in the province of Mantua, Italy
*Gonzaga, Cagayan, municipality in the Philippines
*Gonzaga, Minas Gerais, town in Brazil
*Forte Gonzaga, fort in Messina, Sicily
Surname
*House of Gonza ...
collection in
Mantua
Mantua ( ; ; Lombard language, Lombard and ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Italian region of Lombardy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, eponymous province.
In 2016, Mantua was designated as the "Italian Capital of Culture". In 2 ...
, where it was inventoried in 1627 Whilst there it was seen by
Peter Paul Rubens
Sir Peter Paul Rubens ( ; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish painting, Flemish artist and diplomat. He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque painting, Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens' highly charged comp ...
, who stayed with the Gonzaga family whilst on the continent on diplomatic and art-collecting duties for
Charles I of England
Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland from 27 March 1625 until Execution of Charles I, his execution in 1649.
Charles was born ...
. It was an important influence on his