Mars and Venus United by Love
Dublin Core
Description
Mars and Venus United by Love was painted by Paolo Veronese (Paolo Caliari) in the 1570s. Veronese was most likely commissioned by Emperor Maximilian II to create this mythological masterpiece. Before the Metropolitan Museum of Art received this painting in 1909-1910, several European royalties owned this painting, starting with Emperor Rudolf II in Prague by 1621. [1] This painting has been in several different exhibits over the last hundred years in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Veronese displays the Roman gods’ Mars and Venus in a beautiful landscape with their son, Cupid, placed in the lower-left corner. Cupid is tying a love knot around his parents, symbolizing a happy marriage. Both parents are looking at their son; Venus is smiling, and Mars has a straight face. Mars is wearing his war uniform, referring to his status as the god of war in ancient mythology. He is not wearing a helmet, but his armor is decorated in gold with lion faces in the design. He also has a lavender cape that he is holding with his left hand. He is shown with brown curly hair and a full beard, comforting his wife. Venus, the goddess of love, is painted with her blonde hair pinned up, pearls around her neck, and one bracelet on either wrist. She has a blue and gold strap wrapped around her upper right side of her body. It has the same gold lions as Mars’s armor. Venus is nude with the right breast covered by her right hand, her left breast covered by Mars’s head, and her lower body is covered by the other side of Mars’s cape, which is a deep blue color. There appears to be a drop of milk coming from Venus’s breast, which may be an allusion to chastity transformed by love into charity. [2] They appear to be up against the side of a piece of architecture.
There is a beautiful landscape with trees and leaves of various colors. You see leaves with green, yellow and brown. The brightness of this painting is very bright, and there is not much shade. Behind the happy family appears another Cupid guarding Mars’s horse with his sword, symbolizing restrained passion [3]. The peaceful horse is portraying the opposite of Mars because Mars is considered an angry god. In the painting, it appears that Mars can be intimate and loving towards his wife. The sky is ombré colored with blue hues of azurite and smalt with various clouds throughout the painted sky [4].
[1] Mars and Venus United by Love,” Metropolitan Museum of Art, accessed November 8, 2020, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437891.[2] 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.
[3] Krén, Emil, and Daniel Marx. “Mars and Venus United by Love,” accessed November 8, 2020, https://www.wga.hu/html_m/v/veronese/10/1allego2.html.
[4] Salmon, Xavier F. "Veronese's Skies in S. Sebastiano." The Burlington Magazine 154, no. 1315 (2012): 712.
Creator
Source
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.
Krén, Emil, and Daniel Marx. “Mars and Venus United by Love,” accessed November 8, 2020, https://www.wga.hu/html_m/v/veronese/10/1allego2.html.
Salmon, Xavier F. "Veronese's Skies in S. Sebastiano." The Burlington Magazine 154, no. 1315 (2012): 712.
Image Source: Paolo Veronese (Paolo Caliari) (Italian, Verona 1528-1588 Venice). 1570s. "Mars and Venus United by Love." Painting, Paintings. Place: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. https://library.artstor.org/asset/SS7731421_7731421_11764786.
Publisher
Image Source: Paolo Veronese (Paolo Caliari) (Italian, Verona 1528-1588 Venice). 1570s. "Mars and Venus United by Love." Painting, Paintings. Place: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. https://library.artstor.org/asset/SS7731421_7731421_11764786.
Date
Contributor
Rights
Image Source: Paolo Veronese (Paolo Caliari) (Italian, Verona 1528-1588 Venice). 1570s. "Mars and Venus United by Love." Painting, Paintings. Place: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
https://library.artstor.org/asset/SS7731421_7731421_11764786.
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