  We analyze the finite-strain Poynting-Thomson viscoelastic model. In its
linearized small-deformation limit, this corresponds to the serial connection
of an elastic spring and a Kelvin-Voigt viscoelastic element. In the
finite-strain case, the total deformation of the body results from the
composition of two maps, describing the deformation of the viscoelastic element
and the elastic one, respectively. We prove the existence of suitably weak
solutions by a time-discretization approach based on incremental minimization.
Moreover, we prove a rigorous linearization result, showing that the
corresponding small-strain model is indeed recovered in the small-loading
limit.
