# Venus and Tannhäuser [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [LIEZEN-MAYER, Sándor]() - Date: 1851-1900 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 84 x 55 cm ## Commentary Venus and Tannhäuser c. 1875 Oil on canvas, 84 x 55 cm Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, Budapest Tannhäuser \(died after 1265\) was a German Minnesänger and poet. He was an active courtier at the court of Frederick II of Austria \(1230-1246\), and the Codex Manesse \(1340\) depicts him clad in the Teutonic Order habit, suggesting he might have fought the Fifth Crusade \(1213-21\) Tannhäuser became the subject of legend, first attested in 1430, propagated in ballads from 1450. The legendary account makes Tannhäuser a knight and poet who found the Venusberg, the subterranean home of Venus, and spent a year there worshipping the goddess. The legend was made famous in modern times through Richard Wagner's three-act opera Tannhäuser, completed in 1845. <p> <table align=left cellpadding=5 border=1 width=320 bgcolor="\#99cccc"> <tr valign=middle><td><img src="/support/gif/listen.gif" border=0 valign=middle> Suggested listening \(streaming mp3, 14 minutes\):<BR><A HREF="\#" onClick="w=window.open \('/music1/19\_cent/wagner\_tannhauser\_overture.html', 'newWin', 'scrollbars=yes,status=no,dependent=yes,screenX=0,screenY=0,width=350,height=350'\);w.opener=this;w.focus\(\);return true"><B>Richard Wagner: Tannhäuser, overture</b></a> </td></tr></table> ## Related artworks - [Canonization of St Elizabeth of Hungary in 1235 \(sketch\)]() - [Faust and Marguerite]() - [Queen Elisabeth Signs the Condemnation to Death to Mary Stuart]() - [Queens Elisabeth and Mary at the Tomb of King Lajos the Great in 1385]() - [Saint Elizabeth of Hungary]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()