Venus and Adonis

Titian called paintings like this his poesie, visual poems on classical myth, made through the 1550s for the future Philip II of Spain. Venus and Adonis was the second of them. The story is Ovid's: the goddess loves a mortal hunter who would rather go to the hunt, and who will be gored by a boar before the day is out. But Titian invented the exact instant himself, found in no ancient text, Venus twisting round to hold Adonis back as he pulls away toward the dogs. He was so pleased with the design that he and his workshop repeated it for years, and some thirty versions survive. In this one, tied to the Spanish court, Cupid lies asleep in the shade, a quiet sign that love has already lost the argument.