There were the marks on the bosom and
thigh where the fingers had touched; whereas in the Venus de' Medici, if
I remember rightly, the fingers are sculptured quite free of the person.
The man who showed the statue now lifted from a corner a round block of
marble, which had been lying there among other fragments, and this he
placed upon the shattered neck of the Venus; and behold, it was her head
and face, perfect, all but the nose! Even in spite of this mutilation,
it seemed immediately to light up and vivify the entire figure; and,
whatever I may heretofore have written about the countenance of the Venus
de' Medici, I here record my belief that that head has been wrongfully
foisted upon the statue; at all events, it is unspeakably inferior to
this newly discovered one. This face has a breadth and front which are
strangely deficient in the other. The eyes are well opened, most unlike
the buttonhole lids of the Venus de' Medici; the whole head is so much
larger as to entirely obviate the criticism that has always been made on
the diminutive head of the De' Medici statue.
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