VENUS PUDICA

In English,modestVenus. The term describes aclassicalsculpture type where Venus is surprised at her bath and covers her nudity with her arms. Examples of this kind were known in the Renaissance, including a Roman copy in theMedicicollection, now in theUffizi, Florence.Masaccioborrowed the model to depict his Eve in theExpulsion from Paradisein theBrancacci Chapel(c. 1425) at Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, who feels ashamed of her nudity.Sandro Botticelliused it in hisBirth of Venus(c. 1485; Florence, Uffizi) appropriately as it depicts the moment when the goddess, having emerged from the waters, arrives in Cythera, her sacred island, where one of the Hours (or perhaps Flora or Pomona) awaits to cover her nudity with a flowered mantle. In hisVenus and Anchiseson theFarnese ceiling(c. 1597-1600;Rome, Palazzo Farnese),Annibale Carracciused the pose to denote Venus' hesitation on whether to give in to the sexual advances of a mere mortal.