(Maubeuge 1602–1676 Parma)
Venus and Adonis,
oil on canvas, 125 x 183 cm, unframed

Provenance:
Private European collection

The present painting relates to an autograph work by Michele Desubleo now in Apsley House, London (126 x 188 cm, inv. no. WM 1612-1948). Alberto Cottino has suggested that the elegant and fascinating painting at Apsley House should be dated to the mature period of Desubleo’s activity, at the beginning of his stay in Venice, in the first half of the 1650s (see: A. Cottino, Le copie e le derivazioni come paradigma di fortuna storica: il caso di Michele Desubleo, in: Valori Tattili. Una vita per l’arte. Studi in onore di Andrea Emiliani, 5-6, 2015, p. 312).

The present painting shows Adonis holding the lead of his dog, while his right arm encircles Venus. We can see the hand of the master especially in the figure of Adonis, and the participation of the workshop in the landscape and curtain. The fortune of the Flemish painter’s compositions in Italy is testified by the numerous replicas of his works, not only by himself with the collaboration of his studio, but also by the painters of the Bolognese school.

Michele Desubleo, after his apprenticeship under Abraham Janssens, moved to Rome in the first half of the 1620s, accompanied by his half-brother Nicolas Régnier. Around 1630 he was admitted as an assistant to the workshop of Guido Reni in Bologna, who was a crucial influence on him. After a long sojourn in Veneto, he was first mentioned in Parma in 1665, where he spent his last years.