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This marble relief depicts Venus rising from the waves. Her left foot rests on a shell, as she wrings the sea water from her hair with both hands. A latin inscription runs along the length of the base: "NVDA VENVS MADIDAS EXPRIMIT IMBRE COMAS" (Naked Venus wrings spray from her hair).
The relief formed part of a cycle of carvings of mythological figures by Lombardo. The inscription on the base is the last pentameter of a passage in Ovid in which the poet describes a gem incised with the image of Venus rising from the sea "Naked Venus wrings spray from her hair". It was a signal to the learned viewer to recall the full passage to be found in the poet's work the Arts of Love.
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