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Nude man, woman, and baby sitting next to dogs beneath some trees.

A man and a woman sit on a rock. The woman is nude from the waist up with a blue shroud around her legs. She leans right, her left arm around the shoulder of the man. He is also nude, an orange cloth over his hips. In his hands he holds the leash of two brown hunting dogs in the lower right corner. In the left corner, a nude baby holds filmy fabric above his head. Behind the figures is a hill covered with trees and a small house. A swath of pink fabric hangs in the top left corner.

Gallery Text

Venus and Adonis depicts the ancient Roman goddess of love lounging outdoors with the object of her affection. Accompanied here by Cupid, Venus warns Adonis of the dangers of hunting, an admonition he ignores. The hunting dogs held by Adonis foreshadow his death by a wild boar attack. Painted while von Aachen was in Italy, the figures and landscape show the influence that northern Italian painting had on the German artist, particularly the vivid coloristic effects of Venetian art and the elongated body types made famous by the artist Parmigianino. Although von Aachen eventually returned to northern Europe, he continued working in the mannerist style he developed in Italy. In 1592, Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II named von Aachen the First Court Painter of Prague, a distinguished appointment that placed him at the center of the most celebrated royal court of the time.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
BR77.1
People
Hans von Aachen, German (Cologne, Germany 1552 - 1615 Prague, Bohemia [now Czech Republic])
Title
Venus and Adonis
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
c. 1574-1588
Culture
German
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/222437

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2540, European Art, 13th–16th century, The Renaissance
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
68.2 x 95.2 cm (26 7/8 x 37 1/2 in.)
framed: 90.5 x 118 x 7 cm (35 5/8 x 46 7/16 x 2 3/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • label: top stretcher bar, ink on paper, handwritten: Brandt

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Torrey Little, Boston, MA (?-1958), sold; [to Victor D. Spark, New York, NY (1958-1977), sold]; to Busch-Reisinger Museum, 1977.

Notes:
Before the painting was sold to Victor D. Spark, it was attributed to Joseph Heinz, the Elder.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Antonia Paepcke DuBrul Fund and the Friends of the Busch-Reisinger Museum Fund
Accession Year
1977
Object Number
BR77.1
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Rüdiger an der Heiden, "Zu neu aufgefundenen Gemälden Hans von Aachens", Pantheon, Bruckmann Verlag (Munich, 1974), 32, pp. 249-254, p. 252-253, illus. p. 253
  • "Mannerist Painting Acquired by Busch", Busch-Reisinger Museum Newsletter, Busch-Reisinger Museum (Cambridge, MA, November 1977)
  • Charles Werner Haxthausen, "The Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard: the Germanic Tradition", Apollo (May 1978), vol. 107, no. 195, pp. 403-413, p. 413, repr. p. 413 as fig. 9
  • Eliška Fucíková, "Studien zur rudolfinischen Kunst: Addenda et Corrigenda", Umení : casopis Kabinetu theorie a dejin umení Ceskoslovenske akademie ved. (Prague, Czech Republic, 1979), vol. 26, pp. 489-511, p. 501, repr. p. 495 as fig. 10
  • Charles Werner Haxthausen, The Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University, Abbeville Press (New York, NY, 1980), p. 45, repr.
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 97, repr. p. 267 as fig.426
  • Eliška Fucíková, "A Contribution to the Early Drawings of Hans van Aachen", Record of the Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton University Art Museum (Princeton, NJ, 1992), vol. 51, no. 1, pp. 15-21, p. 21 (n. 2)
  • Joachim Jacoby, Hans von Aachen, 1552-1615, Deutscher Kunstverlag (Munich, 2000), p. 140
  • Peter Nisbet and Joseph Koerner, The Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, ed. Peter Nisbet, Harvard University Art Museums and Scala Publishers Ltd. (Cambridge, MA and London, England, 2007), p. 225
  • Thomas Fusenig, ed., Hans von Aachen (1552-1615). Court Artist in Europe (2010), p. 14, fig. 10, color repr.

Exhibition History

  • 32Q: 2540 Renaissance, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Verification Level

This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu