Venus cajoling Vulcan for Arms for Aeneas
after Sir Anthony Van Dyck (Antwerp 1599 - London 1641)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1675 - 1700
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1016 x 1372 mm (40 x 54 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Kingston Lacy Estate, Dorset
NT 1257091
Caption
Venus was the mother of Aeneas, the ancestor of the Romans, having slept with a mortal Trojan, Anchises. According to the story, told by Virgil in his Aeneid, she asks Vulcan, the lame blacksmith of the gods and her celestial husband, to make a set of armour for her son to go to war. The result of Aeneas’ subsequent victory, on the banks of the River Tiber, was the beginning of the Roman civilisation. She is accompanied by winged Cupid, who is trying the breastplate against her, perhaps more as an act of modesty, and putti, one of whom playfully tries the helmet on for size. This painting is a smaller copy of the original picture in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Venus cajoling Vulcan for Arms for Aeneas, after Sir Anthony van Dyck (Antwerp 1599 - London 1641), late 17th century. A reduced copy of the picture in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. The Vienna picture is first recorded in the collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in 1659. The fact that the present painting shows it without its later addition enhances the possibility that the original was amongst the many pictures acquired by the Archduke in England, taking advantage of the breaking up of collections caused by the Civil War, and that this copy was made whilst it was still in England. Less easy to explain are the variations to the coiffure and drapery of Venus.
Provenance
First recorded in 1731, A14; 1762-77, no. 97; c. 1880, no. 9; 1835;1856; 1860 as 'unfinished Sketch by Vandyck'; Vigers 1905; bequeathed by (Henry John) Ralph Bankes (1902 – 1981) to the National Trust, together with the estates of Corfe Castle and Kingston Lacy and its entire contents in 1981
Credit line
Kingston Lacy, The Bankes Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
VENUS AND VULCAN / VAN DYCK (painted in black on giltwood label, fitted to bottom frame)
Makers and roles
after Sir Anthony Van Dyck (Antwerp 1599 - London 1641), artist