The William Henry Fox Talbot Catalogue Raisonné

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Object within Schaaf no. 5309

Bust of Venus

Object details

Alternate titles

Bust of Susanna, after Francois du Quesnoy

Image size: h 6.8cm x w 6.7cm

Paper size: h 9.8cm x w 9.4cm

Object Type: Salted Paper Print

Physical description: tones starting to reverse; one top corner of negative clipped

Owner: Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History

Object owner number: 1995.0206.346

Collection: Photographic History Collection

This object is part of Schaaf no. 5309

Bust of Venus

One of the objects most photographed by Talbot, this statuette seems always to have been known as the “Bust of Venus” by the Talbot family. It was often referred to as such in inscriptions made by the likes of Lady Elisabeth Feilding. It is in fact a “Bust of Susanna”, reduced from the original full-figure marble statue by the Baroque sculptor, François du Quesnoy (1597-1643). The original is in the Church of Santa Maria di Loreto, in Rome.