Venus and Adonis
Artist
Hendrick de Clerck
(Flemish, 1570-1629)
CultureFlemish
Dateca. 1600
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 63 x 57 3/4 in. (160 x 146.7 cm)
Overall, Frame: 70 1/2 x 65 1/4 in. (179.1 x 165.7 cm)
Overall, Frame: 70 1/2 x 65 1/4 in. (179.1 x 165.7 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase
Object number67.34.3
On View
Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 203
Label TextHendrick de Clerck Flemish, ca. 1570–1629 Venus and Adonis, ca. 1600 Oil on canvas Sometimes even the love goddess Venus is unlucky in love. As told in Roman myth, Venus fell for the reckless young hunter Adonis. Though she begged him not to stalk the fiercest animals, he ignored her pleas and was killed by a boar. In Hendrick de Clerck’s painting, Venus clings to Adonis, trying to keep him safely at her side. With his eyes turned aside, the ill-fated hunter is already pulling away to lead his dogs into the forest. The artist used the story to display his mastery of the human figure in the fashionable Italian style. He presents the lovers as artfully proportioned and elegantly posed semi-nudes, their luminous bodies set against a dark screen of foliage. Museum purchase 67.34.3 ProvenanceVictor Spark, 1958; Purchased by The Chrysler Museum, 1967. Exhibition History"Man, Jest and Riddle," Exhibited in 1964-1965 at the M.H. de Young Museum. (Exhib. cat. no. 141). Published ReferencesChrysler Museum. "Venus & Adonis," _Chrysler Museum Bulletin_. Vol. 3, no. 2. 02/1974. Jefferson C. Harrison. "Northern Art: Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries", _The Chrysler Museum Gallery Guide_. The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va. 1984. Jefferson C. Harrison. _The Chrysler Museum Handbook of the European and American Collections: Selected Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings_. The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA, 1991, p. 18, no. 15. Thomas Dalla Costa, _Venere e Adone di Tiziano- Arte, cultura e società tra Venezia e l'Europe_, (Venice: Marsilio Editori, 2019), p. 226, fig. 48.
17th century
