An admirable ''Venus Pudique,'' tentatively credited to Hubert le Sueur, represents a young woman daintily moving forward, slightly bent as she conceals her nudity with folded arms. This one Louis XIV owed to a bequest made by Charles Errard, the first director of the Academie de France in Rome, where he died on May 25, 1689. The Sun King, touched by Le Notre's donation, ordered a special presentation of the bronzes at Versailles. These are the highlights of the collection. And then there are the countless enigmas.
Some bronzes are hard to place geographically.
An admirable stag, so far given to the German school, looks remarkably French. The circumstances of acquisition of all eludes us, even the two gems. One is a 45.5-centimeter athlete, one arm raised, the other missing, as already specified in the 1684 inventory. It was called ''Etruscan'' in 1684 and certainly looks very Etruscan, with its big, mesmerizing eyes. The other gem, a standing boy in a cape, has a highly expressive stare, one eyebrow raised.