Venus and Adonis is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Italian artist Paolo Veronese, created in the early 1580s. The work illustrates a scene from the Metamorphoses, a narrative poem by the Roman poet Ovid. It portrays Venus, the goddess of love, with Adonis sleeping on her lap. She has foretold that her lover will be killed during a hunt, and she is looking down at her son Cupid, who is restraining a sighthound in a vain endeavour to prevent Adonis from hunting and thus precipitating his death. The painting is now in the collection of the Museo del Prado in Madrid.Painting credit: Paolo Veronese