# Venus and the Sphinx \(detail\) [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [PRÉAULT, Antoine-Augustin]() - Date: 1801-1850 - Technique: Tinted plaster ## Commentary French Mannerist art may have guided Préault's approach, but a drawing he made earlier in Rome shows that it was <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/m/michelan/3sistina/1genesis/6adam/06\_3ce6b.html'\)" href="/html/m/michelan/3sistina/1genesis/6adam/06\_3ce6b.html">Michelangelo's Creation of Adam</a> on the Sistine Ceiling that directly inspired the pose of Venus here. In placing the figures of deities on the backs of fabled creatures, Préault was following antique and Renaissance precedents - like other late nineteenth-century artists - but his manner of doing so broke all rules. The figures' poses are tense and awkward, and their musculature exaggerated. ## Related artworks - [Clémence Isaure]() - [Crucifix]() - [Jupiter and the Sphinx]() - [Ophelia]() - [The Killing]() - [The Silence of Death, Tomb of Jacob Robles]() - [Venus and the Sphinx]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()