(Venice 1518–1594)
Venus and Adonis,
oil on canvas, 158 x 255 cm, framed

Provenance:
art market, Italy;
Private European collection

We are grateful to Mauro Lucco for suggesting the attribution after examining the present painting in the original.

The present painting depicting the story of Venus and Adonis, taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, is related to Tintoretto’s production of mythological subjects from the mid-sixteenth century. The artist shows the moment when the goddess of beauty tries to persuade Adonis to love her, he however, prefers to go out hunting, later dying after being badly injured by a boar. The format of the painting suggests that the composition was once intended to decorate the portico, or central hall, of a building, presumably in conjunction with another work portraying a complementary subject.

The composition is similar to the Susanna in the Louvre (inv. no. 568; MR 498). The monumental bodies of both women seem to be directly inspired by Hellenistic sculpture and even the bright flesh of the painted sitters is reminiscent of flawless marble. The figures’ facial features with round-arched brows, large almond-shaped, dark eyes and the soft rosy cheeks correspond to the prevailing beauty ideal of sixteenth-century Venice. As is the case for Susanna, Venus is placed on the left half of the image, sitting on a folded cloth. Adonis is placed in the centre of the painting, about to tie the rope on which the three hunting dogs are leashed – a motif that originates from Titian’s compositions of the same subject. The youth is shown in antique clothing, with his head slightly raised, gazing at the naked goddess. The figural group is completed by Cupid on the right side.

The present painting relates to a large composition, attributed to Tintoretto in the National Gallery of Ireland (138 x 202 cm, inv. no. NGI.768). It is legitimate to hypothesize that it could originally have been paired with the one in Dublin, which has measurements that are slightly smaller than the present work as a result of a reduction made in the past, as details such as the cut-off feet of the goddess demonstrate. The goddess of the painting in Dublin is portrayed as she embraces Adonis, who holds the three tied up dogs. The clear features of the goddess suggest a possibility that this might be a portrait of the wife of the commissioner of the painting and that this particular moment in the interchange between Venus and Adonis could have been chosen to avoid a more erotic or amorous instance.

Tintoretto’s first biographer Carlo Ridolfi mentions an ‘Adone che si diparte da Venere, mentre ella tenta con vezzi rattenerlo’ (see C. Ridolfi, Vita di Giacopo Robusti, detto il Tintoretto, Celebre Pittore. Cittadino Venetiano, Venice 1642, p. 70) together with two other untraced paintings showing Apollo and the Muses, as well as Tithonus and Aurora for the ceiling of a room in the palace of Giovanni da Pesaro, who was Procurator of St Mark’s and later Doge of Venice (see C. Ridolfi, Ibid., 1642, p. 69).

Technical analysis by Gianluca Poldi

Imaging techniques are particularly important in understanding the technique of the present painting in order to compare it to other works by Jacopo Tintoretto.

IR reflectography (IRR) shows some changes along the edges of the figures: this is typical of Jacopo Tintoretto’s working practice. The most noticeable modifications occur in Venus’ body: for example, her right leg was originally larger and longer, a little shifted to the right, it was then altered and set back so as not to interfere with the leg of the dog. Venus’ right arm was originally placed further to the left. In general, her figure was presumably originally intended to be larger, closer to the viewer, in the very foreground, and was then subsequently reduced.

Other changes include alterations to the head of the brown dog, and some of the paws; the adjustment to the outline of Cupid’s right leg and Adonis’ arms.

Underdrawing is visible along some of the figures: black, made with a quite large paintbrush, which is slightly wavy along the figures and sometimes reinforced a couple of times, as can be read well along the figure of Cupid, but also elsewhere. Below Adonis’s knees the drawing traces the anatomy, but also under his neck and in the goddess’s pubis. This is the kind of underdrawing that is typical in paintings by Jacopo Tintoretto.

Pigments, examined by vis-RS on more than 30 points, include an intense natural ultramarine blue in the sky, in Adonis’ blue apparel and in the blue collar of the dog on the left. This precious pigment, coming at that time from the mines of Afghanistan, is mainly used over a white priming, in order to keep its peculiar tone: a practice much used by Jacopo Tintoretto. Azurite is largely employed in the bluish vegetation, as in the right hill and in the stream of water. Copper-based greens are also used, sometimes together with lead-tin based yellow. Vermillion is widely added to lead white in the flesh tones, while a carmine-based red lake is used in Adonis’ tunic.