Toilet of Venus
by ALBANI, Francesco, Oil on canvas, 202 x 252 cm
In 1621, Ferdinando Gonzaga, the Duke of Mantua, commissioned a series of The Story of Venus for his Villa Favorita. Completed in 1633, these pictures are enlarged versions of the round compositions of a cycle formerly executed for the prince Borghese towards 1615-17. The Toilet of Venus belongs to the series.