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Jan Saenredam, designer

Venus Grows Cold without Ceres and Bacchus, (Love Grows Cold without Food and Wine), ca. 1600

Description

Maker

Title

Venus Grows Cold without Ceres and Bacchus, (Love Grows Cold without Food and Wine)

Year

ca. 1600

Medium

Engraving

Materials/Techniques

Materials

Techniques

Supports

Dimensions

Sheet: 26.8 x 20.4 cm (10 9/16 x 8 1/16 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Shield, Briquet 2291

Identification

State

state ii

Type

Credit

Mary B. Jackson Fund

Object Number

2006.92.3

Projects & Publications

Publications

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

The Brilliant Line

September 18, 2009 - January 3, 2010

One of Hendrick Goltzius’s best students, Jan Saenredam’s mastery lay in his evenly weighted burin hand and lightness of touch, which produced silvery delicacy and astonishing light effects.

Drawing upon a Roman farce by Terence explained by the 16th-century humanist Erasmus, this image illustrates the idea that food and drink, the gifts of Ceres and Bacchus, nourish desire, as embodied by Venus. Saenredam united the three gods with reverberating reflections across the image and with a circular composition in which their limbs overlap. Cupid, god of lust, incites the desire, as he reaches to pluck one of Venus’s grapes.

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Venus Grows Cold without Ceres and Bacchus, (Love Grows Cold without Food and Wine) with the accession number of 2006.92.3. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.