More

We use some essential cookies to make this website work. We'd like to set other cookies to remember your settings, measure website use and inform our marketing. We also use content from other sites in our pages, and those sites may also set cookies. More information can be found in our cookies policy.

17 Statuette: Woman at her Toilet

The artists of the Renaissance revived the bronze-casting techniques that had become less widely used during the Middle Ages and began to create sculptures on a variety of scales. Small bronze sculptures were popular among aristocrats and scholars, being well suited for display in their studies, and in the sixteenth century, their popularity spread from Italy throughout Europe. The sculptor Barthélémy Prieur became particularly popular in France for his statuettes of women. For this piece, Prieur transformed the image of Venus Wounded by a Thorn from the print after a drawing by Raphael into an everyday scene of a woman bending over to trim her toenails.