Gallery Label In his "Metamorphoses," Ovid relates the story of the goddess Venus vainly trying to restrain her lover, the mortal Adonis, from departing for the hunt. The mood of playful sensuality conceals the tragic irony that Adonis is destined to be killed during the hunt by a wild boar. Titian painted two versions of the composition; one in 1554 for Philip II of Spain (now in the Prado, Madrid), and the other shortly before 1570 for the Farnese family (lost). The present picture is a version of the second composition, and since cleaning (1976) can be seen to have been painted in large part by Titian, the greatest painter of the Venetian Renaissance.
Notes The text is taken from Ovid's "Metamorphoses" and depicts the goddess Venus unsuccessfully trying to restrain her lover, the mortal Adonis, from departing for the hunt; Adonis is later killed during the hunt by a wild boar.
Provenance Mariscotti family, Palazzo Mariscotti, Rome (until about 1804; sold to Camuccini); [V. Camuccini, Rome, until 1804; sold through James Irvine to Buchanan]; [William Buchanan, London, from 1804]; John Bligh, 4th Earl of Darnley, Cobham Hall, Kent (by 1816–d. 1831); Earls of Darnley, Cobham Hall (1831–1900); Ivo Francis Walter Bligh, 8th Earl of Darnley, Cobham Hall (1900–25; his sale, Christie's, London, May 1, 1925, no. 79, for £2,415 to Knoedler); [Knoedler, London and New York, 1925–27; sold for $80,000 to Bache]; Jules S. Bache, New York (1927–d. 1944; his estate, 1944–49; cats., 1929, unnumbered; 1937, no. 17; 1943, no. 16)
Exhibition History London. British Institution. 1816, no. 125.
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Winter Exhibition," 1876, no. 119.
Detroit Institute of Arts. "Sixth Loan Exhibition of Old Masters: Paintings by Titian," February 1–15, 1928, no. 19.
Art Gallery of Toronto. "Loan Exhibition of Paintings," November 1–December 1, 1935, no. 26.
San Francisco. California Palace of the Legion of Honor. "Venetian Painting," June 25–July 24, 1938, no. 71.
New York. World's Fair. "Masterpieces of Art: European Paintings and Sculpture from 1300–1800," May–October 1939, no. 384.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Bache Collection," June 16–September 30, 1943, no. 16.
Stockholm. Nationalmuseum. "Konstens Venedig," October 20, 1962–February 10, 1963, no. 97.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Venetian Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum," May 1–September 2, 1974, no catalogue.
Leningrad [St. Petersburg]. State Hermitage Museum. "100 Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum," May 22–July 27, 1975, no. 4.
Moscow. State Pushkin Museum. "100 Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum," August 28–November 2, 1975, no. 4.
Athens. National Pinakothiki, Alexander Soutzos Museum. "Treasures from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Memories and Revivals of the Classical Spirit," August 15–November 15, 1979, no. 42.
Washington. National Gallery of Art. "Titian: Prince of Painters," October 28, 1990–January 27, 1991, no. 60.
Paris. Grand Palais. "Le siècle de Titien: L'âge d'or de la peinture à Venise," March 9–June 14, 1993, no. 256.
Braunschweig. Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum. "Amors Pfeil: Tizian und die Erotik in der Kunst," September 4–November 9, 2003, no. 15.
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