The William Henry Fox Talbot Catalogue Raisonné

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Object within Schaaf no. 2537

Bust of Venus

Object details

Alternate titles

Bust of Susanna, after Francois du Quesnoy

Created: 15 Dec 1840

Image size: h 14.9cm x w 9.2cm

Object Type: Paper Negative-Camera

Physical description: bottom edge is 9.1 cm wide; left edge is 14.7 cm high

Inscription: in pencil, verso, lower left, Decr. 15. 1840; in pencil, verso, lower right, 5' [5 minute exposure]

Owner: Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History

Object owner number: 1995.0206.102

Collection: Photographic History Collection

Supporting images

This object is part of Schaaf no. 2537

Bust of Venus

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.