London. British Institution. 1816, no. 125 (as "Adonis going to the Chace," lent by the Earl of Darnley).

London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Winter Exhibition," 1876, no. 119 (as "Venus and Adonis," lent by the Earl of Darnley).

Detroit Institute of Arts. "Sixth Loan Exhibition of Old Masters: Paintings by Titian," February 1–15, 1928, no. 19 (lent by Mr. Jules Bache, New York).

Art Gallery of Toronto. "Loan Exhibition of Paintings," November 1–December 1, 1935, no. 26 (lent by Jules S. Bache, Esq., New York).

San Francisco. California Palace of the Legion of Honor. "Venetian Painting," June 25–July 24, 1938, no. 71 (lent by the Bache Collection, New York).

New York. World's Fair. "Masterpieces of Art: European Paintings and Sculpture from 1300–1800," May–October 1939, no. 384 (lent by the Jules S. Bache collection, New York).

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.

James Irvine. Letter to William Buchanan. June 30, 1804 [published in Ref. Buchanan 1824], writes from Rome that he has bought the picture for Buchanan from "the younger Camuccini," who bought it from the Mariscotti palace; as by Titian.

W[illiam]. Buchanan. Memoirs of Painting, with a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures by the Great Masters into England since the French Revolution. London, 1824, vol. 1, p. 123; vol. 2, p. 153, as in the collection of the Earl of Darnley; publishes the letter from Irvine to Buchanan with details of its acquisition [see Ref. Irvine 1804].

[Gustav Friedrich] Waagen. Treasures of Art in Great Britain. London, 1854, vol. 3, pp. 18–19, as at Cobham Hall, in the collection of the earl of Darnley.

G[iovanni].-B[attista]. Cavalcaselle and J[oseph].-A[rcher]. Crowe. Tiziano, la sua vita e i suoi tempi. 2, repr., 1974. Florence, 1878, pp. 95–96 [English ed., "The Life and Times of Titian," 2 vols., London, 1881, vol. 2, pp. 151–52], call it a mediocre copy or imitation by a later artist of the version formerly in the Farnese collection (now lost).

Casimir Stryienski. La Galerie du Régent Philippe, duc d'Orléans. Paris, 1913, p. 46.

August L. Mayer. "Tizianstudien." Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, n.s., 2 (1925), pp. 276–79, fig. 7, as with Knoedler, London and New York.

Frank E. Washburn Freund. "Paintings by Titian in America." International Studio 90 (May 1928), p. 39, ill. p. 41, dates it about 1555; calls it superior in some ways to the version in the Prado.

Frank E. Washburn Freund. "Leih-Ausstellungen in Amerikanischen Museen." Der Cicerone 20 (1928), p. 258, ill. p. 256.

A Catalogue of Paintings in the Collection of Jules S. Bache. New York, 1929, unpaginated, ill.

Walter Heil. "The Jules Bache Collection." Art News 27 (April 27, 1929), pp. 3–4.

Ludwig Burchard in Unknown Masterpieces in Public and Private Collections. 1, London, 1930, unpaginated, under no. 24, assigns it to the second, later, group of paintings of this subject, along with the Washington picture, which he believes to be the last of all the versions.

August L. Mayer. "Die Sammlung Jules Bache in New-York." Pantheon 6 (December 1930), p. 542.

Bernhard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Oxford, 1932, p. 573.

Wilhelm Suida. "Tizians 'Kind mit der Taube'." Belvedere 11 (July–December 1932), p. 166, fig. 147, groups it with the Washington version and a smaller example in a private collection, Paris.

Bernhard Berenson. Pitture italiane del rinascimento. Milan, 1936, p. 493.

A Catalogue of Paintings in the Bache Collection. under revision. New York, 1937, unpaginated, no. 17, ill.

A Catalogue of Paintings in the Bache Collection. rev. ed. New York, 1943, unpaginated, no. 16, ill.

Louis S. Levy. The J. S. Bache Collection. [after 1943], pp. 11, 36.

Hans Tietze. Titian: The Paintings and Drawings. 2nd, rev. ed. London, 1950, p. 402, calls it a studio replica of the Washington painting.

Edoardo Arslan. Letter. April 21, 1952, calls it a school work.

Rodolfo Pallucchini. Tiziano: Lezioni tenute alla Facoltà di Lettere dell'Università di Bologna durante l'Anno 1953–54. Bologna, [1953–54], vol. 2, p. 77, attributes it to Titian and dates it after 1560.

Hans Tietze. "An Early Version of Titian's Danae: An Analysis of Titian's Replicas." Arte veneta 8 (1954), p. 202, tentatively suggests that the smaller versions of the composition, including this one, may be studio replicas by Orazio Vecellio.

Bernard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Venetian School. London, 1957, vol. 1, p. 189; vol. 2, pl. 997.

Cecil Gould. The Sixteenth-Century Venetian School. London, 1959, pp. 99–100, under no. 34, dates it after 1554, later than the Prado painting; discusses in detail the two groups of versions and the issues connected with their provenance and dating.

Francesco Valcanover. Tutta la pittura di Tiziano. Milan, 1960, vol. 2, pp. 44–45, pl. 91 [English ed., "All the Paintings of Titian," New York, 1960, vol. 3, p. 47, pl. 91].

Harald Keller. Tizians Poesie für König Philipp II von Spanien. Wiesbaden, 1969, p. 191, calls it a copy after the Washington painting.

Rodolfo Pallucchini. Tiziano. Florence, 1969, vol. 1, pp. 142, 315; vol. 2, pl. 475, dates it about 1560–65.

Erwin Panofsky. Problems in Titian, Mostly Iconographic. New York, 1969, p. 151 n. 34, suggests that Venus's pose derives from the Roman relief of Psyche and Cupid known as the "Bed of Polyclitus" (Hewett collection, Ashford, Kent), by way of the figure of Hebe in Raphael's "Marriage of Psyche" (Villa Farnesina, Rome).

Francesco Valcanover in L'opera completa di Tiziano. repr., 1978. Milan, 1969, p. 129, no. 428, ill. p. 128, attributes it to Titian with assistants and dates it 1560 or later.

Calvin Tomkins. Merchants and Masterpieces: The Story of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1970, p. 316 [rev., enl. ed., 1989].

Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972, pp. 202, 475, 608.

David Rosand. "'Ut Pictor Poeta': Meaning in Titian's 'Poesie'." New Literary History 3, no. 3 (1972), p. 539 n. 31, calls the MMA and Washington paintings "smaller format studio variants of the composition"; further explores the influence of the "Bed of Polyclitus" on the composition [see Ref. Panofsky 1969].

Federico Zeri with the assistance of Elizabeth E. Gardner. Italian Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Venetian School. New York, 1973, pp. 81–82, pl. 95, state that "although some parts, especially areas in the landscape, are too weak to have been painted by Titian himself, the major part, including the three figures, can be considered his work"; date the MMA and Washington paintings to the late 1560s.

David Rosand. "Titian and the 'Bed of Polyclitus'." Burlington Magazine 117 (April 1975), p. 245 n. 17.

Harold E. Wethey. "The Mythological and Historical Paintings." The Paintings of Titian. 3, London, 1975, pp. 59, 192–93, no. 43, pl. 97, attributes it to Titian and workshop and dates it about 1560–65.

Sylvia Hochfield. "Conservation: The Need is Urgent." Art News 75 (February 1976), pp. 32–33.

Fern Rusk Shapley. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. Washington, 1979, vol. 1, pp. 493, 495 n. 6, states that the MMA and Washington paintings are "both attributed to Titian and studio and both believed to date in the mid-1560s".

Jaynie Anderson. "Giorgione, Titian and the Sleeping Venus." Tiziano e Venezia. Vicenza, 1980, p. 339 n. 22, calls the MMA and Washington paintings workshop variants of the lost Farnese picture.

Augusto Gentili. Da Tiziano a Tiziano: mito e allegoria nella cultura veneziana del Cinquecento. Milan, 1980, pp. 115–16, 215 nn. 16, 17, fig. 72, attributes it to Titian with the collaboration of assistants and dates it to the end of the 1560s.

Fritz Heinemann Università degli Studi di Venezia. "La bottega di Tiziano." Tiziano e Venezia. Vicenza, 1980, p. 437, attributes it to Orazio Vecellio.

Howard Hibbard. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1980, p. 276, fig. 505.

David Alan Brown in Titian: Prince of Painters. Exh. cat., Palazzo Ducale. Venice, 1990, pp. 328–30, no. 60, ill. (color), states that cleaning in 1976 revealed that the picture is in large part executed by Titian himself, and that the palette is typical of his work of the 1560s.

Colnaghi in America: A Survey to Commemorate the First Decade of Colnaghi New York. New York, 1992, p. 131.

Francesco Valcanover in Le siècle de Titien: L'âge d'or de la peinture à Venise. Exh. cat., Grand Palais. Paris, 1993, pp. 616–17, no. 256, ill. pp. 238 (color) and 616 [2nd ed., rev. and corr., 1993, pp. 672–73, no. 256, ill. pp. 238 (color) and 672], following the cleaning in 1976, finds that the painting is superior to the version in Washington, mostly by Titian with minimal studio assistance, and dates from 1560–65.

Marjorie E. Wieseman in The Age of Rubens. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston, 1993, p. 586, under no. 127, calls it a replica of the Prado painting.

Bruce D. Sutherland. "A Subtle Allusion in Titian's 'Venus and Adonis' Paintings." Venezia Cinquecento 9 (January–June 1999), pp. 37–38, 42, 46, 49, 51 nn. 16, 18, fig. 4, proposes that in his versions of this subject Titian intentionally positioned Adonis's spear over Venus's breast in order to allude to the "arrow pierced heart".

Maria Agnese Chiari Moretto Wiel in Filippo Pedrocco. Titian. New York, 2001, pp. 228, 260, no. 216, ill. (color).

Mila Horký. Amors Pfeil: Tizian und die Erotik in der Kunst. Exh. cat., Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum. Braunschweig, 2003, pp. 10, 13, 18, 60–62, 64, 66, 68, 79, 85, 97, no. 15, colorpl. III, ill. p. 60 and on front and back covers (color details).

Old Master Paintings: Part One. Sotheby's, London. July 10, 2003, p. 12, under no. 4, calls it a "partially autograph variant" of the lost Farnese painting.

David Rosand. "Inventing Mythologies: The Painter's Poetry." The Cambridge Companion to Titian. Cambridge, 2004, p. 292 n. 24.

Meryle Secrest. Duveen: A Life in Art. New York, 2004, pp. 306–7.

Andrea Bayer. "North of the Apennines: Sixteenth-Century Italian Painting in Venice and the Veneto." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 63 (Summer 2005), pp. 12, 14–15, fig. 11 (color), ill. on cover (color detail), suggests that Titian based the composition not directly on Ovid, but on a retelling of the story by the Spanish writer Diego Hurtado de Mendoza published in Venice in 1553.

Nicholas Penny. "Venice 1540–1600." The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings. 2, London, 2008, pp. 277, 283, 289 n. 19, p. 291 nn. 69–70, pp. 449, 451 n. 16, thoroughly discusses all the versions of the composition, calling the MMA painting partly autograph.