The William Henry Fox Talbot Catalogue Raisonné

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Object within Schaaf no. 4037

Bust of Venus

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Object details

Alternate titles

Bust of Susanna, after Francois du Quesnoy

Image size: h 6.8cm x w 5.4cm

Object Type: Paper Negative-Camera

Physical description: possibly an experimental negative with rough circular sensitising; print edges ragged and uneven

Inscription: pencil lines along two edges

Owner: Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History

Object owner number: 1995.0206.636

Collection: Photographic History Collection

Rights and Reproduction

This object is part of Schaaf no. 4037

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.