In the 1850’s Queen Victoria and her consort, Prince Albert acquired a series of zinc cast statues based on originals from the antique for the gardens at Osborne House, their summer residence in the Isle of Wight. The statues were cast by the Berlin founders M. Geiss, who exhibited a bronzed zinc cast of stags in the 1851 Great Exhibition in London that were purchased by Prince Albert. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert acquired eleven zinc statues from M Geiss for Osborne House and these included Urania, Euterpe, L’Adorant, Ganymede, Venus of Capua, Meleager, Bacchus, Venus de Medici, Ceres, Medea and Venus d’Arles. This full-length zinc statue of the Venus (or Aphrodite) of Capua is a replica after the original Roman sculpture from the 2nd century AD (now in Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli), discovered in the early 19th century during excavations in the Amphitheatre of Capua. Venus is depicted standing, with her head turned to the left and arms extended in the same direction, and with her foot resting on a helmet. It has been suggested, because of the way in which her arms and hands are extended to the side, that she could have been holding the shield of her lover, Ares (or Mars).