Venus lamenting the Dead Adonis
British (English) School
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1800
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
650 x 730 mm
Order this imageCollection
Felbrigg, Norfolk
NT 1401288
Caption
This amateur piece shows the moment when Venus discovers the body of her beloved Adonis. Whilst out hunting, Adonis had been slain by a wild boar, and accident Venus had always dreaded. In the place where the earth was stained with Adonis’s blood, anemones sprouted. The myth is told in Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses.’
Summary
Oil painting on canvas (oval), Venus lamenting the Dead Adonis, British (English) School, circa 1800. Adonis draped in green lies on the ground with his helmet and pike by his side. Mourning him is Venus on her knees and a putti draped in red. Landscape in background.
Provenance
Part of the Windham Collection. The hall and contents were bequeathed to the National Trust in 1969 by Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer (1906-1969).
Makers and roles
British (English) School, artist