Georg Vischer

This nude female reflects the influence of Italianate, classical ideals of beauty in northern Europe and particularly Nuremberg, Germany, where Vischer’s family ran a bronze foundry. The figure holds a branch with a nut in her right hand and gently squeezes her breast with her left, gestures that together symbolize fertility.

During the Renaissance, wealthy collectors prized small bronzes such as this because they evoked similar statues made in ancient Greece and Rome. Bronze figures were admired for their graceful lines and layered, dark lacquers. Such a precious object would have been displayed in a room dedicated to intellectual pursuits and full of private possessions, mostly secular in nature.