The Death of Adonis

Artist Giovanni Battista Gaulli (Italian, 1639-1709)

Dateca. 1685

Object number66.0593

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensions57 5/16 x 45 1/2 in. (145.6 x 115.6 cm)
frame: 64 3/4 x 52 9/16 x 2 1/2 in. (164.5 x 133.5 x 6.4 cm)

ClassificationsPainting

Credit LineMuseo de Arte de Ponce. The Luis A. Ferré Foundation, Inc.

Collections

Italian Painting

DescriptionAccording to Greco-Roman mythology, the beautiful young Adonis was killed by a wild boar during a hunt. The goddess Venus, his lover, heard his groans as she flew overhead, but arrived seconds too late. Here, Venus alights from her golden chariot, wrapped in a flowing, deep blue mantle, and gazes at her dying lover. Meanwhile, a pale carnation blooms beside his waist where his blood nourishes the ground. Venus and Cupid’s anguished expressions, along with the dramatic twisting of the drapery, convey the intense pain and tension of this moment before Adonis’s death.

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