Venus and Adonis

Venus and Adonis

SK-A-3888

Venus, the goddess of love, warns her lover Adonis of the danger of the hunt. In vain, however, for he is killed by a wild boar. On the left, Cupid, the god of love, already gestures in despair. The tall, slender figures with small heads are characteristic of Spranger’s style. The hilly landscape is ‘old-fashioned’: the artist derived it from an early 16th-century painting.

Fucikova, Eliska, 'Umelci na dvore Rudolfa II. A jejich vztah k tvorbe Albrechta Dürera', Umeni 20 (1972), p. 347-362.

painter: Bartholomeus Spranger

c. 1585 - c. 1590

olieverf op paneel

height 135 cm x width 109 cm

purchase 1955

Public domain

…; sale, Henry Scipio Reitlinger (1882-1950, London), London (Sotheby´s), 9 December 1953, no. 13, £ 850 to the dealer W.M. Sabin;{Copy RMA} …; the Arcade Gallery, London, 1954;{Note RKD.} from whom, fl. 19,213.79, to the museum, 1955

Please note that this provenance was formulated with a special focus on provenance research for the years 1933-45 and could therefore be incomplete. There may be more (mostly earlier) provenance information known in the museum. In case this item has an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the years 1933-45, the Rijksmuseum welcomes information and assistance in the investigation and clarification of the provenance of all works during that era.

Fucikova, Eliska, 'Umelci na dvore Rudolfa II. A jejich vztah k tvorbe Albrechta Dürera', Umeni 20 (1972), p. 347-362.

To refer to this object, please use the following persistent URL:

https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200107993