Venus and Adonis

Cambiaso Luca

(Moneglia 1527 - El Escorial 1585)

Venus and Adonis was mentioned in Manilli's description of the Villa Pinciana in 1650 as a work by Luca Cambiaso, while in the 1693 inventory entry, it was wrongly attributed to Pomarancio, as was another similar painting in the collection, also by the Ligurian artist, depicting Venus and Cupid on the Sea. In the second half of the 18th century, the painting, attribution having been reassigned to Cambiaso, is known to have been in the urban residence of the Borghese family in Campo Marzio, and it was displayed in the Villa again from at least 1859.

The highly popular mythological subject was explored by the artist several times in painting and drawing. In the case of the painting under discussion here, critics have suggested it that belongs to the painter’s late phase, dating it between the late 1560s and the following decade.

Object details

Commentary

The canvas depicting Venus and Adonis, as Paola Della Pergola (1955) noted, appeared in Manilli's 1650 guide to Villa Pinciana, correctly attributed to Luca Cambiaso: “Two Lovers with Cupid in the Air is by Luca Cangiassi” [alternative surname], the last painting mentioned in the entire catalogue. In the subsequent Borghese inventory of 1693, the painting appeared without a precise description of the mythological theme and was attributed to Pomarancio, while it reappeared again under Cambiaso's name in the 1790 list. Della Pergola hypothesised that the canvas could be identified as a painting of Venus and Adonis listed among Olimpia Aldobrandini's possessions in 1682 with attribution to Veronese, of which nothing was heard until 1750. She also suggested that it was part of the set of works which, at the end of the legal disputes over the Aldobrandini secundogeniture, were returned by the Pamphilj to the heirs of Giovanni Battista Borghese, Olimpia's first-born son (Della Pergola 1963).

Subsequent studies recognised the canvas as “a Nude Woman Seated with a Man Placing his Hand under her Chin, with a Cupid [...] by Pomarangi”, recorded in the inventory of 1693, stressing that the attribution to Pomarancio also applied to another painting with a mythological theme by Cambiaso, Venus and Cupid on the Sea (cat. 123), whose stylistic affinities with Venus and Adonis must have been quite clear (Cappelletti 1996). What is extraordinary is the incorrect attribution of the two paintings, given that the same inventory cited six other works in the collection with mythological themes by the Ligurian artist, which could surely have provided a useful point of comparison (Leonardi 2007).

There is evidence that Venus and Adonis was in Palazzo Borghese in Campo Marzio in 1760, where it was still to be found in 1833, while from 1859 it was once again housed in Villa Pinciana, as confirmed by the printed description of works that was normally given to dignitaries visiting the collection (Leonardi, cit.).

The artist addressed this theme several times, with various paintings and drawings (Suida Manning, Suida 1958). In the case of the Borghese painting, the focus is on the amorous exchange between the two figures, with their expressive gestures: Venus, with her finger pointed at her beloved, warns him not to be so intrepid in his hunting, almost as if foretelling the imminent tragedy, while Adonis caresses her chin as if to reassure her, before he departs (Cappelletti, cit.).

Critics have ascribed the painting to the artist's late phase, between the second half of the 1560s and the following decade (Suida Manning, Suida, cit.; Magnani 1995, p. 92).

Pier Ludovico Puddu