Napoleon's Sister's Breast Cast in Plaster

Aug. 15, 2007 — Expert male hands applied plaster to the young breast of Napoleon's sister to create an actual mould, according to a new investigation into the marble portrait of Pauline Bonaparte.

Created by Antonio Canova (1757-1822), Italy's most celebrated neoclassical sculptor, the statue is known as Venus Victrix, or "Venus the Victorious," and depicts Napoleon's favorite sister lying half-naked on a couch.

A woman of great beauty, Pauline was the subject of considerable scandal during her time. Her eccentricities included love affairs with low-ranking soldiers serving under her husband General Charles Leclerc. And rumors circulated about her unconventional behaviors, such as having African slaves carry her to her bath, while living with her second husband, Camillo Borghese.

Sculpted when Pauline was 25, only 15 years before her death from cancer, the white marble portrait is one of the biggest attractions in Rome's Galleria Borghese.

The statue even featured an innovative wooden base with a mechanism that caused the artwork to rotate in front of the viewer.

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But the masterpiece holds an even racier secret, according to art historian Maurizio Bernardelli Curuz.

"(Canova) never admitted it, but he obtained Pauline's perfect breast using plaster casts from life," Bernardelli Curuz told Discovery News.