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The Passing of Venus

1898
Not on view
Overwhelming passion was a constant theme in Burne-Jones’s art. He was working on this study for a Morris & Company tapestry showing Venus’ conquest when he died in 1898. Although preliminary, the intricate composition is clearly established: the goddess enters at left in a winged chariot while Cupid prepares the way. As women fall before him, he fits an arrow for the next victim among a crowd of nervous beauties. Burne-Jones invented the motif, drawing on medieval poetry and Renaissance allegories of the triumph of love, for his personal homage to the irresistible power of desire. The design was used by Merton Abbey Tapestry Works to weave two tapestries, in 1908 and 1922. The first was destroyed by fire and the second is now at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Passing of Venus
  • Artist: Sir Edward Burne-Jones (British, Birmingham 1833–1898 Fulham)
  • Date: 1898
  • Medium: Gouache (bodycolor) and metallic paint on cardboard
  • Dimensions: 16-1/16 x 38-11/16 in. (40.8 x 98.2 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1962
  • Object Number: 62.167
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Head of a Woman, Sir Edward Burne-Jones British, Wool (15 warps per inch, 6 per cm.), British, Merton Abbey
Head of a Woman
Multiple artists/makers
designed 1877–98; woven before 1923
Armed Men, Sir Edward Burne-Jones British, Graphite, heightened with white chalk, on brown paper
Armed Men
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
1855–98
Study of a Female Head, Sir Edward Burne-Jones British, Yellow, red, and green pastel with fabricated black crayon on red paper
Study of a Female Head
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
1890
The Summons: Study for the Head of Gawaine, Sir Edward Burne-Jones British, Fabricated black crayon on paper
The Summons: Study for the Head of Gawaine
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
1893
Summer Snow (in "Good Words for 1863," opp. p. 380)
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Dalziel Brothers
1863

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