Venus and Adonis

The subject is from Ovid’s Metamorphoses (completed 8 A.D). Accidently pricked by one of Cupid’s arrows, Venus fell in love with the handsome hunter Adonis. Rubens shows their leave-taking—a Renaissance embellishment famously depicted by Titian (see his canvas in Gallery 607). With manly indifference to the goddess’s charms and her warnings of danger, Adonis hunted a wild boar and was gored to death. Except for its conclusion, the story was well suited to decorate grand country houses, where the chase occupied noblemen indoors and out. (Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art)