Mars and Venus United by Love
Dublin Core
Title
Mars and Venus United by Love
Description
Paolo Veronese, an Italian Renaissance painter, was known for his vivid use of color and naturalist style, which he developed from Titian. He created paintings with striking, colorful settings and was admired for the grandeur and sensibility of his brushwork [1].
Veronese’s Mars and Venus United by Love illustrates a peaceful, quiet scene where two mythological subjects are being united by love. On the left, the naked goddess of Venus is seen with her arm around Mars, taming him from his fighting endeavors. The nudity of Venus displays her sensual and erotic power. Her other arm is cupping her right breast, from which milk flows, which denotes attributes of nourishment and fertilization [2]. These attributes soften the image and represent central aspects of love and family. Meanwhile, Mars is depicted in armor and typical solider uniform with a lavender cape draped around most of his body. This cape creates a soft texture in the painting showing his passionate side, displaying him as the lover and not the warrior. On the right side of the painting, a baby cupid can be seen taming a war horse of Mars. This symbolizes the subduction of Mars’s fighting passion for his love for Venus. On the left side of the painting, a second cupid is scene binding the two figures with a love knot, symbolizing their unification through hard times and times of war. The use of two cupids emphasizes how Mars and Venus are putting aside all other hindrances to unify in an eternal state of happiness and accord [2].
The entire scene takes place in a grove and creates a mood of peace and love [3]. The grove gives a sense of an idyllic landscape environment, where this type of impossible engagement can survive. The painting has a very calm tone with a hint of rough texture shown by the sword and war horse, which helps create a balanced composition. The landscape is filled with beautiful trees and leaves of all colors contributing to the mood of prosperity and happiness. The deep blue sky, filled with some clouds, creates a serene atmosphere where these two “lovebirds” can forget about everything and just embrace each other [3]. Overall, Veronese creates an undisturbed composition filled with color to show the “forbidden” love affair by two mythological figures.
[1] Rodolfo Pallucchini, Paolo Veronese (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1972) 1, 2.
[2] Emil Kren, Mars and Venus United by Love (Web Gallery of Art), 1.
[3] Xavier Solmon, Veronese's Skies in S. Sebastiano, (The Burlington Magazine 154, no. 1315, 2012), 711.
Veronese’s Mars and Venus United by Love illustrates a peaceful, quiet scene where two mythological subjects are being united by love. On the left, the naked goddess of Venus is seen with her arm around Mars, taming him from his fighting endeavors. The nudity of Venus displays her sensual and erotic power. Her other arm is cupping her right breast, from which milk flows, which denotes attributes of nourishment and fertilization [2]. These attributes soften the image and represent central aspects of love and family. Meanwhile, Mars is depicted in armor and typical solider uniform with a lavender cape draped around most of his body. This cape creates a soft texture in the painting showing his passionate side, displaying him as the lover and not the warrior. On the right side of the painting, a baby cupid can be seen taming a war horse of Mars. This symbolizes the subduction of Mars’s fighting passion for his love for Venus. On the left side of the painting, a second cupid is scene binding the two figures with a love knot, symbolizing their unification through hard times and times of war. The use of two cupids emphasizes how Mars and Venus are putting aside all other hindrances to unify in an eternal state of happiness and accord [2].
The entire scene takes place in a grove and creates a mood of peace and love [3]. The grove gives a sense of an idyllic landscape environment, where this type of impossible engagement can survive. The painting has a very calm tone with a hint of rough texture shown by the sword and war horse, which helps create a balanced composition. The landscape is filled with beautiful trees and leaves of all colors contributing to the mood of prosperity and happiness. The deep blue sky, filled with some clouds, creates a serene atmosphere where these two “lovebirds” can forget about everything and just embrace each other [3]. Overall, Veronese creates an undisturbed composition filled with color to show the “forbidden” love affair by two mythological figures.
[1] Rodolfo Pallucchini, Paolo Veronese (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1972) 1, 2.
[2] Emil Kren, Mars and Venus United by Love (Web Gallery of Art), 1.
[3] Xavier Solmon, Veronese's Skies in S. Sebastiano, (The Burlington Magazine 154, no. 1315, 2012), 711.
Creator
Paolo Veronese
Source
Pallucchini, Rodolfo. “Paolo Veronese.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 1972. Accessed November 10, 2020. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Paolo-Veronese.
Salomon, Xavier F. "Veronese's Skies in S. Sebastiano." The Burlington Magazine 154, no. 1315 (2012): 711-12. Accessed November 10, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41812820.
Kren, Emil. “Mars and Venus United by Love.” Mars and Venus United by Love by VERONESE, Paolo, 2013. https://www.wga.hu/html_m/v/veronese/10/1allego2.html.
Bayer, Andrea. "North of the Apennines: Sixteenth-Century Italian Painting in Venice and the Veneto." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 63, no. 1 (2005): 20. Accessed November 10, 2020.
Paolo Veronese (Paolo Caliari), Italian, Venetian, 1528-1588. Mars and Venus United by Love. Place: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, http://www.metmuseum.org. https://library.artstor.org/asset/MMA_IAP_10310749724.
Publisher
Emperor Maximilian II
Image Source:
Paolo Veronese (Paolo Caliari), Italian, Venetian, 1528-1588. Mars and Venus United by Love. Place: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, http://www.metmuseum.org. https://library.artstor.org/asset/MMA_IAP_10310749724.
Image Source:
Paolo Veronese (Paolo Caliari), Italian, Venetian, 1528-1588. Mars and Venus United by Love. Place: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, http://www.metmuseum.org. https://library.artstor.org/asset/MMA_IAP_10310749724.
Date
1570s
Contributor
Raj Kumar
Rights
The person who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of his or her rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. This image was provided by The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Contact information: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028,
Format
Oil on Canvas, 205.7 cm x 161 cm
Type
Painting
Coverage
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, New York, USA
Citation
Paolo Veronese, “Mars and Venus United by Love,” ARTHIST 89S - Visual Culture of Venice - Fall 2020, accessed October 22, 2026, https://venice.dahvc.org/fall-2020/items/show/167.