Venus beweint den toten Adonis

Art Historical Context

Greek myth the goddess Venus loved the beautiful youth Adonis and begged him to avoid the dangers of the hunt. He ignored her warning, was gored by a wild boar, and died in the woods. She reached him only after his last breath had gone. Matthäus Donner shaped this moment around 1750 in plaster given a dark greenish patina. The relief now belongs to the Belvedere collection in Vienna. Venus stands upright in shock, her body forming a sharp vertical against the long horizontal line of Adonis, while the small winged Cupid presses close as if trying to return the arrow to its bow. The broken chariot wheel lies half sunk in the ground near Adonis’s outstretched hand; its splintered spokes draw attention to the abrupt halt of motion and the finality of the spear still gripped in his fingers.