Venus and Adonis, painted in 1632 by Dutch painter Abraham Bloemaert, is from the Graeco-Roman mythological story of Venus the goddess of love who attempts to seduce the handsome Adonis. However, Venus’s love for Adonis is not reciprocated, as Bloemaert paints her imploring the youth to remain with her beseeching arm. Adonis intends to leave her to go hunting. In the right background is a troubling scene of a figure being attacked by an animal. Perhaps this is the painter’s moral warning against the dangers of the excesses of lust.
Abraham Bloemaert’s Venus and Adonis is in the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, Denmark.