Venus and Adonis is an oil on canvas painting by Peter Paul Rubens and his studio, executed c. 1614, now in the Hermitage Museum, in Saint Petersburg.[1] 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. A third version was in the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum in Berlin until being destroyed during World War Two.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e4/Venus_and_Adonis_-_Ermita%C5%BC.jpg/350px-Venus_and_Adonis_-_Ermita%C5%BC.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/44/Venus_and_Adonis_-Kunst_Palast.jpg/220px-Venus_and_Adonis_-Kunst_Palast.jpg)
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[2] and the dogs by Wildens. It was in private collections in Brussels such as that of Carl de Cobenzel until 1768, when a collector sold it to the Hermitage.
References
edit- ^ "Catalogue entry".
- ^ (in German) Max Rooses, Rubens Leben und Werke, Berlin, 1905