Lot Essay
Almost certainly part of the '11 Busts and statues' recorded in the Library in the 1839 Inventory.
The Venus de Medici and the Apollino are illustrated in an oil of the Library by Lady Ela Russell, dated 1879.
These models of celebrated antiquities originally ornamented the bookcases of Endsleigh's Library that was designed around 1810 in the Grecian/Elizabethan style by Jeffrey Wyatt for John, 6th Duke of Bedford (d.1840). The Venus de Medici and the Apollino from the Uffizi, together with the Belvedere Laocoon are likely to have been acquired by the Duke on his return from his Grand Tour in 1815, and at the time of his employment of Wyatt to create the Woburn Abbey Sculpture Gallery for the display of his collection of antiquities and modern sculpture.
The Venus de Medici and the Apollino are illustrated in an oil of the Library by Lady Ela Russell, dated 1879.
These models of celebrated antiquities originally ornamented the bookcases of Endsleigh's Library that was designed around 1810 in the Grecian/Elizabethan style by Jeffrey Wyatt for John, 6th Duke of Bedford (d.1840). The Venus de Medici and the Apollino from the Uffizi, together with the Belvedere Laocoon are likely to have been acquired by the Duke on his return from his Grand Tour in 1815, and at the time of his employment of Wyatt to create the Woburn Abbey Sculpture Gallery for the display of his collection of antiquities and modern sculpture.