On-line gallery
- Reference number
- P00422
- Author
- Titian [Vecellio di Gregorio Tiziano] (Italian)
- Title
- Venus and Adonis
- Chronology
- 1554
- Technique
- Support
- Measures
- 186 cm x 207 cm
- School
- Theme
- Shown
- Yes
- Entrance
- COLECCION REAL
- Procedence
- Royal Collection
Venus, the classical goddess of
Love and Beauty, is aware of her
beloved Adonis' mortal destiny and
attempts to persuade him not to go
hunting.
For Felipe II, Titian painted a
series of works known as “Poetry”
based on classical texts, mainly
Ovid's Metamorphosis. Two of them
—Danae (P425) and Venus and Adonis—
are in the Prado Museum. Other
works in this series include Diana
and Acteon, Diana and Calixto (both
at the National Gallery in
Edinburgh), The Rape of Europe
(Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum,
Boston) and Perseus and Andromeda
(The Wallace Collection, London).
Titian himself chose the subject
matter for these works, which he
called “Poetry” and, beyond
symbolic or moral interpretations,
they were conceived as paintings to
delight the senses.
The “Poetry” paintings appear in
the inventories of Madrid's Alcázar
Palace beginning in 1623. They
entered the Prado Museum collection
in 1827.
Location on the map
