Venus and Adonis

In April 1609 Spain and the Dutch Republic signed a truce, and after more than 40 years of war Antwerp had buyers again. Rubens had come home from Italy a few months before that, after eight years of studying Titian and the antique, and by the autumn he was court painter to the Archdukes Albert and Isabella. Around 1610 he painted this, his first version of the story: Venus trying to keep Adonis from the hunt that will kill him. He returned to the subject twice more over the next 25 years. The picture later belonged to Friedrich V, the elector whose reign as king of Bohemia lasted a single winter, and it is still in Düsseldorf only because it was overlooked when the rest of the electoral gallery was moved to Munich.