Townley's Venus

Left: The Society of Dilettanti, Dilettanti Society Specimens of Ancient Sculpture: Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek, and Roman, Vol. 2 (London, 18350, Plate 14.

Right: The Society of Dilettanti, Dilettanti Society Specimens of Ancient Sculpture: Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek, and Roman,

Vol. 2 (London, 1835), Plate 15.

This statue of Venus was discovered by Gavin Hamilton in Ostia in 1775. It was later acquired by the English nobleman, Charles Townley. It thus became part of the “Townley Marbles,” which now reside in the British Museum. Townley, was a member of the Society of Dilettanti, a group of aristocrats who sponsored the study of Greek and Roman antiquity and the creation of new work in the classical style. Townley displayed this sculpture at his home in Park Street, in the West End of London, which had been built for the purpose of housing his vast collection of antiquities. Although the Townley Venus was fairly intact when it was first found, Hamilton had broken it into two in order to extract it surreptitiously from Rome. The statue's left arm, which was missing at the time of the excavation, was also replaced when the sculpture was pieced together again in England. The Townley Venus is thus an example of the unorthodox methods of importation and restoration of antiquities practiced in the eighteenth century.

A well-known painting by Johan Zoffany depicts Townley sitting amidst a fantastical arrangement of his marbles, while discussing his collection with three fellow antiquarians--Charles Astle, Charles Francis Greville, and Pierre-François Hugues D'Hancarville.

For an image of Johann Zoffany's Charles Towneley in his Sculpture Gallery (1782), click here.