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Ashcombe Museum of Art & History
Paintings

Landscape with Venus and Adonis

PaintingMetalworkLandscape

Details

Author / creator
Gillis van Coninxloo (Netherlandish, 1544–1607)
Object type
Painting
Date or period
1580s
Dimensions summary
Framed: 48.3 × 64.5 × 7 cm; Unframed: 37.8 × 53.6 cm
Support
Copper
Paint medium
  • Oil

About this object

Venus, the goddess of love, is unsuccessful in dissuading her mortal lover Adonis from hunting the boar that would eventually kill him. The artist nestles this story in the foreground of an expansive view with Germanic architecture, rather than a classical setting. Woodlands were relatively new subjects in European painting and this work points toward the full-blown forested landscapes of the 1600s.

Materials and technique

Oil on copper

Signature and marks

Signed lower left: "GLVC [monogram]"

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