Bather

The statuette, belonging to Giambologna’s earliest independent small bronzes, represents a nude woman in the act of stroking herself with a piece of cloth. It is considered as Venus, but the action itself has divided scholars, and the statues of the type have gone under names ranging from “Venus drying herself” to “Venus after the bath” to “woman bathing.”

There exist several copies of this statuette in museums and private collections.