Venus, Adonis und Amor

Around 1590 Annibale Carracci was in Bologna, working out the mix of Venetian color and Roman drawing that would soon carry him to Rome and the great Farnese ceiling. This canvas comes from that turning point. It takes a scene from Ovid, the goddess Venus and the mortal hunter Adonis, whom she loved and would lose to a wild boar. Titian and Veronese had each painted the same story reaching toward its grim end, but Carracci chose the opposite instant, the first spark of desire, Cupid pressing close as the two lean together. X-rays show he first painted Adonis looking out at us, then turned the head into profile so the young hunter gazes only at Venus. The warm dusk light behind them is his open debt to Titian.