This sculpture in the round portrays a beautiful woman reclining in a very elegant pose, deep in solitary contemplation, emphasised by her lowered gaze. Both for the typology of the sculpture and the peculiar treatment of the surfaces this Venus resembles the artistic production of Giovanni Bonazza, whose works include a series of small marbles on different subjects consisting of representations of reclining figures. These include a Reclining Nymph in the Dallas Museum of Art (Dallas), a Venus and Cupid in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe (Hamburg), and three sculptures depicting the Penitent Magdalene in the Musei Civici in Padua, one of which in particular seems to be an ideal companion piece to a Penitent St Jerome, signed and now in the University Library of Padua. Also worth mentioning for its extraordinary quality is another Penitent St Jerome in the Monastery of San Francesco in Rovigno (Istria).
