The William Henry Fox Talbot Catalogue Raisonné

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Object within Schaaf no. 208

Bust of Venus, taken with a "Mousetrap" camera

Object details

Alternate titles

Bust of Susanna, after Francois du Quesnoy

Image size: h 5.8cm x w 2.2cm

Object Type: Paper Negative-Camera

Physical description: chemicals applied in a circular daub

Inscription: pencil rule line along one edge

Provenance:
Matilda Talbot 1934

Owner: National Science and Media Museum

Object owner number: 1937-1488

Collection: Science Museum Collection

This object is part of Schaaf no. 208

Bust of Venus, taken with a "Mousetrap" camera

Keywords: Sculpture

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.