Scuola Veneta

Venus and Adonis ------ Venetian School, late 18th century -------- Oil on canvas ----------- 19th-century gilded frame ------------ Canvas size 48 x 38 cm, frame 65 x 55 cm -------------- Excellent condition ----------- Old relining ------------ Beautiful oil painting on canvas depicting the two mythological figures who became the personification of male and female beauty. ----------- Venus is lying completely naked and embraces her lover, offering him her graces. ------------ Adonis is the handsome son of Myrrha, born from the incestuous love with his father Cinyras, king of Cyprus. Venus, Goddess of love and beauty and lover of Ares, falls madly in love with him. Her love encounters with Adonis do not escape Ares, who, enraged, has him killed by a boar bite in the groin. When Venus finds her lifeless lover in the woods, she bursts into tears, and her tears scattered among the grass turned into small red hearts: the strawberries.