Getty Museum
Venus Receiving from Vulcan the Arms of Aeneas
Creator
Francesco SolimenaItalian Artist · 1657–1747
All works by this person →Francesco Solimena settled in Naples in 1674 and became the unchallenged head of the Neapolitan school of painting during the first half of the 1700s. He modeled his painting on the exuberant Baroque style of his predecessor, Luca Giordano, modified by the classical tendencies of Roman decorator Pietro da Cortona. The brownish shadows that are such an identifiable element of Solimena's style are i
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- 1704
- Medium
- Pen and brown ink and brown wash over black chalk
- Culture
- Italian
- Department
- Drawings
- Institution
- Getty Museum
The goddess of love, Venus, asked her husband, Vulcan, to make a set of armor for Aeneas, her son, when he was about to go to war. Here, Vulcan shows off the richly decorated shield he has made, as Venus and Cupid hover above him on a cloud. He gestures to the helmet and sword that lie at his feet. Francesco Solimena made this drawing in preparation for the painting of this subject that now belongs to the Getty Museum. Solimena altered some of the design when he transferred the images from paper to canvas. For example, he changed the position of Cupid and gave him the helmet to hold. Solimena used a painterly combination of pen and brown ink to outline the figures, black chalk hatching to give texture to Vulcan's muscular legs and the clouds, and brown wash to soften the edges and create deeper shadows.
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