Venus and Adonis
Adonis was the mortal lover of the goddess Aphrodite in Greek mythology. In Ovid's first-century AD telling of the myth, he was conceived after Aphrodite cursed his mother Myrrha to lust after her own father, King Cinyras of Cyprus. Myrrha had sex with her father in complete darkness for nine nights, but he discovered her identity and chased her with a sword. The gods transformed her into a myrrh tree and, in the form of a tree, she gave birth to Adonis. Aphrodite found the infant and gave him to be raised by Persephone, the queen of the Underworld. Adonis grew into an astonishingly handsome young man, causing Aphrodite and Persephone to feud over him, with Zeus eventually decreeing that Adonis would spend one third of the year in the Underworld with Persephone, one third of the year with Aphrodite, and the final third of the year with whomever he chose. Adonis chose to spend his final third of the year with Aphrodite.
Venus and Adonis Stamp Collection
A composition of Venus and Adonis by the Venetian Renaissance artist Titian has been painted a number of times, by Titian himself, by his studio assistants and by others. In all there are some thirty versions that may date from the 16th century, the nudity of Venus undoubtedly accounting for this popularity. It is unclear which of the surviving versions, if any, is the original or prime version, and a matter of debate how much involvement Titian himself had with surviving versions. There is a precise date for only one version, that in the Prado in Madrid, which is documented in correspondence between Titian and Philip II of Spain in 1554. However, this appears to be a later repetition of a composition first painted a considerable time earlier, possibly as early as the 1520s.
Tanzania 1990 Venus and Adonis by Titian, National Gallery of Art, Washington. Example of the "Farnese type".
Paraguay 1976 Venus and Adonis by Titian, Prado, 1554. The "Prado type"
Bhutan 1988 Venus and Adonis by Titian, Prado, 1554. The "Prado type"
Paraguay 1970 Venus and Adonis by Veronese
Manama 1971 Venus and Adonis by Veronese
Venus and Adonis is a painting by the Italian late Mannerist artist Paolo Veronese, executed in the early 1580s, now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.
The painting's subject is taken from Metamorphoses, a narrative poem by the Roman poet Ovid. It portrays the hunter Adonis sleeping in Venus' lap. In front of her is her son Cupid, with a sighthound. Cupid is portrayed while trying to quench the dog's desire to hunt, as Venus had forecast that Adonis would die during a hunt. In the background is a lively green landscape, with a vivid blue sky. The painting was executed after Veronese had spent a period in Rome. He modelled his Cupid on the Hellenistic sculpture of a boy with a goose, while Adonis may be modelled on an illustration of Endymion on a Roman sarcophagus in the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran.
Gambia 2000 Venus and Adonis by Veronese
Bhutan 1991 Venus and Adonis by Rubens
Bhutan 1991 Venus and Adonis by Rubens
The whole block
In 1635, Peter Paul Rubens created Venus and Adonis, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. He followed the mythological story in the Metamorphoses by Ovid, inspired from his love of classical literature and earlier depictions of this scene. This oil on canvas painting shows Venus accompanied by Cupid, embracing and pulling Adonis before he goes off to hunt. The artist uses specific colors, detail and strong contrast between light and dark to depict a dramatic and emotional scene. At the time Rubens created the painting, the mythological story of Venus and Adonis was popular in Renaissance and Baroque court art. Rubens was clearly inspired by the many existing depictions of this scene, in particular the famous Titian composition of the same name, of which there are numerous versions. This depicts the same moment of Adonis leaving Venus to hunt, despite her pleas to stay. He is killed later in the day.
Fujiera 1972 Venus and Adonis by Rubens
Dominica 1969 Venus and Adonis by Rubens
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Manama 1971 Venus and Adonis by Rubens
Liberia 1985 Venus and Adonis by Rubens
Ajman 1973 Venus and Adonis by Carracci
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The whole painting by Carracci
Paraguay 1973 The Death of Adonis by Sebastiano del Piombo 1512
Paraguay 1972 Venus and Adonis by Carracci
Venus, Adonis and Cupid is a painting created c. 1595 by Annibale Carracci. The painting is in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. Annibale Carracci was one of the most well known Italian Baroque painters of the seventeenth century.
Venus, Adonis and Cupid illustrates the influence of painters such as Titian, Correggio, Veronese, as well as ancient Greek sculptures. Venus, Adonis and Cupid has three main figures, arranged in a forest landscape: Venus holding Cupid who points at her and Venus looking at Adonis across from her as Adonis looks back. Adonis is accompanied by his hunting dogs as he moves the tree branches and reveals Venus. The painting is arranged diagonally, with loose and fine brushstrokes giving it a naturalistic look. The colors are muted throughout most of the piece but vivid in the figures, drawing the viewer's attention. This composition is influenced strongly by Veronese.
Italy 1993 The Death of Adonis by Sebastiano del Piombo 1512
The whole painting by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon
Death of Adonis by Sebastiano del Piombo
Being a student of Giovanni Bellini and having been influenced by Giorgione, Sebastiano del Piombo took from them the softness of forms and lyrical mood, bringing them into his paintings. But while working in Rome, he was also influenced by the art of Raphael with his absolute harmony and Michelangelo, who endowed his characters with unprecedented power.
In the presented canvas the artist turned to the myth of Adonis, the finest young man, Aphrodite’s beloved, killed by a boar while hunting. Del Piombo portrayed the moment when Aphrodite found out about the death of Adonis, which Cupid reports to her,
Paraguay 1978 Venus and Adonis by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon
(1758 - 1823)
The whole painting by Bartholomeus Spranger
This Venus and Adonis is a c.1614 oil on canvas painting by Peter Paul Rubens and his studio, now in the Hermitage Museum. It is a version of an autograph work from 1609 now in the Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf, replacing its rocky background with Venus's attribute of a golden chariot.
The main figures are by Rubens himself, whilst other areas were painted by his students, with the landscape now attributed to Lucas van Uden or Jan Wildens and the dogs by Wildens.
Paraguay 1972 Venus and Adonis by Bartholomeus Spranger
(1546-1611)
Bulgaria 1977 Venus and Adonis by Rubens
Mongolia 1968 Venus Mourning the Death of Adonis by Francesco Furini , (1603-1646)
Hungary 1970 Venus and Adonis by Luca Giordano, (1632-1705)
In Greek mythology, the attraction between the goddess, Aphrodite and Adonis, is tied to the flower as a potent symbol of love and attraction. In one variation of the myth, the hibiscus represents the handsome Adonis—turned into a hibiscus flower to stop the quarrel between goddesses, Aphrodite and Persephone. In the more common retelling, he is reborn after Aphrodite transforms him into an anemone. Either way the myths suggest early magical rituals where a flower, or its nectar, is used to invoke love and lust. The allure of the hibiscus is that it suggests the power to attract lovers.
Greece 1958 Aphrodite with the flower of Hibiscus - Adonis
A new 70-cent postage stamp from Deutsche Post commemorates the openly homosexual art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768) on the occasion of his 300th birthday. The archaeologist, librarian, antiquarian, art writer and intellectual founder of classicism in Germany not only researched antiquity, but also indulged in "Greek love" - very openly for the time. In his writings he interpreted homosexuality as an expression of higher civilization and raved about male statues again and again in flagrant words. On the new stamp, it is appropriately framed by Adonis (and Aphrodite).
Germany 2017 Johann Joachim Winckelmann with Aphrodite and Adonis