Venus and Adonis (Titian, Madrid)

Venus and Adonis

Artist	Titian
Year	1554
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	186 cm × 207 cm (73 in × 81 in)
Location	Museo del Prado[1], Madrid

Venus and Adonis is a subject painted by the Italian late Renaissance artist Titian a number of times. The version now in Madrid's Museo del Prado was executed in Venice in the 1550s. It was part of a series of mythological paintings called "poesie" ("poems") intended for King Philip II of Spain. Venus and Adonis was designed to be viewed alongside Danaë, a painting from the same series with a related composition. It is displayed in the Prado in a room with other Titians including a version of Danaë.

The Prado online catalogue refers to Titian's first version being a painting done in the 1520s, now lost, and describes the painting in the Prado as one of the first to be painted of the "poesie" series.^[1] However, the connections between Titian's versions of Venus and Adonis are complicated. The painting commissioned by King Philip II was damaged during delivery, and there is a view that it survives as the so-called Lausanne version, which in 2007 was exhibited for the first time in 200 years at a major scientific exhibition of Titian paintings in Belluno.

Titian paintings on display in the Museo del Prado (from left to right: Danaë and the Shower of Gold, The Worship of Venus, Bacchanal of the Andrians, and Venus and Adonis)

It appears that Titian replaced the damaged original with the painting now in the Prado. He went on to paint other versions of the same subject.

The painting is based on the legend of Ovid, though with modifications (Adonis leaves Venus, and not vice versa). It portrays a young Adonis, at dawn, with his dogs, leaving Venus, who desperately tries to keep him with her. The scene symbolizes the force of the hunt call, in turn a metaphor of life and of worldly affairs, which is stronger than that of love (embodied by Cupid, sleeping under trees on the left, arrows helplessly hanging above). In contrast to the later version in Rome, the background features a shining sun emerging from the clouds in an only partially overcast sky.

See also

• Venus and Adonis (Titian, Rome)
• Venus and Adonis by Veronese.

References

Sources

• Gentili, A. (1990). Tiziano (in Italian). Florence. 

Titian (List of works)
Portraits	Jacopo Pesaro being presented by Pope Alexander VI to Saint Peter (1503–06) A Man with a Quilted Sleeve (c. 1509) La Schiavona (1510–12) Vincenzo Mosti (c. 1520) Young Woman in a Black Dress (c. 1520) Man with a Glove (c. 1520) Laura Dianti (c. 1520–25) Federico II Gonzaga (c. 1529) Charles V with a Dog (1533) Ippolito de' Medici (1533) Giacomo Doria (1533–35) Isabella d'Este (1534–36) La Bella (c. 1536) A Young Englishman (1540–45) Clarissa Strozzi (1542) The Vendramin Family (1543–47) Pietro Aretino (1545) Lavinia Vecellio (c. 1545) Pope Paul III (1545–46) Pope Paul III and His Grandsons (1545–46) Equestrian Portrait of Charles V (1548) Charles V (1548) Isabella of Portugal (1548) Philip II in Armour (1550) Christina of Denmark (1555–56) Jacopo Strada (1567–68)
Self portraits	Self-Portrait (1546–47) Self-Portrait (c. 1560)
History painting	Pastoral Concert (c. 1509 – also attributed to Giorgione) The Gypsy Madonna (c. 1510) Miracle of the Jealous Husband (1511) The Three Ages of Man (c. 1512–14) Balbi Holy Conversation (c. 1513) Sacred and Profane Love (c. 1514) Lucretia and her Husband (1515) Flora (c. 1515) Salome (c. 1515) Vanity (c. 1515) Violante (c. 1515) Woman with a Mirror (c. 1515) The Tribute Money (c. 1516) The Worship of Venus (1518–19) Venus Anadyomene (c. 1520) Averoldi Polyptych (1520–22) Bacchus and Ariadne (1520–23) The Bacchanal of the Andrians (1523–26) Venus of Urbino (1538) Alfonso d'Avalos Addressing his Troops (1540) Venus and Music (1547) The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence (c. 1548–59) The Punishment of Tythus (1549) The Fall of Man (c. 1550) Venus and Adonis (c. 1553) Danaë (series) (1543–65) Mater Dolorosa (c. 1555) Venus with a Mirror (1555) Diana and Actaeon (1556–59) Diana and Callisto (1556–59) The Death of Actaeon (c. 1559–75) Venus and Adonis (c. 1560) Venus Blindfolding Cupid (c. 1565) Allegory of Prudence (c. 1565–70) Tarquin and Lucretia (comp. 1571) Punishment of Marsyas (1570–76)
Biblical	Christ Carrying the Cross (c. 1505 – also attributed to Giorgione) St. Mark Enthroned (c. 1510) Noli me tangere (c. 1514) Assumption of the Virgin (1516–18) Pesaro Madonna (1519–26) Gozzi Altarpiece (1520) Malchiostro Annunciation (c. 1520) The Entombment of Christ (c. 1520) The Madonna of the Rabbit (1530) Penitent Magdalene (1533) Saint John the Baptist (1540) The Crowning with Thorns (1542–43) Saint Jerome in Penitence (1552) Saint Jerome in Penitence (1575) Crucifixion (1558) The Entombment (1559) St Margaret and the Dragon (c. 1559) Annunciation (1559–64) Madonna and Child with Saints Luke and Catherine of Alexandria (c. 1560) Penitent Magdalene (1565) Saint Sebastian (c. 1575) Pietà (1576)