Landscape with Venus and Adonis
Medium
oil on copper
Dimensions
unframed: 37.8 × 53.6 cm · framed: 48.3 × 64.5 × 7 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
European Painting and Sculpture
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
Accession Number
1962.293
Tags
male
About this artwork
Venus, the goddess of love, is unsuccessful in dissuading her mortal lover Adonis from hunting the boar that would eventually kill him. The artist nestles this story in the foreground of an expansive view with Germanic architecture, rather than a classical setting. Woodlands were relatively new subjects in European painting and this work points toward the full-blown forested landscapes of the 1600s.