# Venus and Adonis [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [GOLTZIUS, Hendrick]() - Date: 1551-1600 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 141 x 191 cm ## Commentary The story of Venus and Adonis is taken from the tenth book of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Venus, the goddess of love, becomes enamoured of the beautiful young huntsman, Adonis. Venus and the young Cupid try in vain to prevent Adonis from going hunting, as the goddess has had a premonition that the hunting party will have fatal consequences, and indeed the hunter is killed by a wild boar. Goltzius in this painting rendered the two lovers as heroic nudes, positioning them in the immediate foreground in almost symmetrical poses. They form a stable, pyramidal shape the inverse of which is established by the clump of trees behind them. In this painting and in other works from this period Goltzius shows a strong affinity to the style of Rubens. ## Related artworks - [Apollo]() - [Bacchus, Venus, and Ceres]() - [Calphurnius]() - [Circumcision in the Church of St Bavo at Haarlem]() - [Dirck Volkertsz Coornhert]() - [Hercules and Cacus]() - [Icarus]() - [Jupiter and Antiope]() - [Lot and his Daughters]() - [Mercury]() - [Minerva]() - [Phaeton]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()