Venus and Adonis

1550s–1560s

Oil on canvas, 106.7 × 133.4 cm · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Titian’s most repeated composition: at least 30 versions by him, his workshop and copyists are known. This is the “two-dog” type, a different design from the version he painted for Philip II.

Venus, seen from behind, clings to Adonis as he leaves for the hunt.
Cupid is awake and frightened; a rainbow and a burst of light fill the sky.
The Met dates it to the 1550s; the National Gallery of Art’s catalogue places it in the 1560s with workshop help.

Venus loved the mortal hunter Adonis and begged him not to go hunting. He was killed by a boar, and the anemone grew from his blood.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · CC0