Madrid, Spain - This magnificent painting reveals Annibale Carracci's direct knowledge of Venetian painting and was already described in old inventories as having been painted "ad emulatione di quella di Tiziano" (to emulate Titian's).  The Venetian artist painted several versions of this subject, one of which is in the Museo del Prado.

Both painters based themselves on the account related by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, but chose to depict different moments in the narrative.  Carracci opted for a sensual episode in which he conveys the passion that has arisen between Venus and Adonis after their chance meeting in the forest as Adonis sets out for the hunt.  This love was the result of one of Cupid's arrows which wounded Venus, his mother.  Titian, however, depicted a scene of high tension as Venus, who has a presentiment of disaster, tries to prevent Adonis setting out for the fatal hunt that will end in his death.

Annibale Carracci's visual idiom is also different to that of Titian.  In his composition the three figures stand out against the background of a shady landscape with an emphasis on the sensuality of their bodies created through the golden light that falls on them.  To further highlight the body of Venus, the artist arranges her along a diagonal with her arms around Cupid.  The goddess's full, curving form prefigures the way in which Rubens so often depicted his female nudes.

Carracci gives Adonis a highly dynamic pose that contrasts with Venus's languid body.  Through their exchange of gazes the artist creates an amorous complicity between Adonis and the goddess of beauty, while Cupid looks out towards the viewer and involves him or her in the events, pointing to the wound he has inflicted on his mother.

There is an old copy of this painting in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna that was considered autograph until the mid-20th century, when the Prado version became better known.  The present version was studied through the various preparatory drawings in the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, in the Uffizi in Florence and in the British Museum in London, as well as through x-rays which have revealed Annibale's working methods and the creative process behind the work.

It is not known for whom the painting was originally executed.  It formed part of the collection of the Genoese marquis Giovanni Francesco Serra and was acquired from his posthumous sale in 1664 by Philip IV of Spain.  It entered the royal collection and was hung in the Alcázar in Madrid.  However, due to its sensual nature it was only displayed in private in the 18th and 19th centuries, first in the Casa del Rebeque, then in the Private Gallery in the Academia de San Fernando and finally in the Private Gallery of the Museo del Prado.  From 1883 to 1984 the painting was on long-term loan to the Universidad Central, Madrid in the Philosophy and Arts Faculty.  Its lengthy pilgrimage ended with its return to the Prado in 1984.

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