Adonis Led by Cupids to Venus

The Louvre label for this canvas carries an old title, Water, together with a note that it is wrong. At some point Albani's four paintings on the loves of Venus and Diana were reread as the four elements. The canvas with swans harnessed in the sky became Air, the one where Diana's nymphs disarm the cupids on the ground became Earth, and this one, with cupids splashing in a river, became Water. The fourth, Venus resting beside Vulcan, hangs in the Louvre too.

Albani did paint a genuine set of the elements, round pictures now in Turin, but this is not part of it. The subject comes from Ovid. Adonis, spear in hand and his hound beside him, is being led by cupids towards Venus, who lies asleep on a red drapery under the trees, while two more cupids fly overhead with a veil.