'Venus at the Forge of Vulcan, after Anthony Van Dyck', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Venus at the Forge of Vulcan, after Anthony Van Dyck

From Studies in the Louvre Sketchbook

Turner Bequest LXXII

Date 1802

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensionssupport: 128 x 114 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

Reference

D04291

Turner Bequest LXXII 16

View this artwork by appointment, at Tate Britain's Prints and Drawings Rooms

Turner's sketchbooks

View this artwork in the Studies in the Louvre Sketchbook

Catalogue entry

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

Folio 16 Recto:

Venus at the Forge of Vulcan, after Anthony Van Dyck 1802

D04291
Turner Bequest LXXII 16

Pencil, with some scratching out, on white wove paper prepared with a grey wash, 128 x 114 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘16’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘LXXII–16’ bottom right

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

References

Van Dyck’s (Sir Anthony Van Dyck 1599–1641) picture, painted 1630–2, was acquired by Louis XIV between 1684 and 1713. The subject is from Virgil’s Aeneid. Venus, using her amorous wiles, persuades her husband Vulcan to forge arms to protect her son Aeneas in a forthcoming battle. The figure of Vulcan is not apparent in Turner’s copy. Turner admired Van Dyck’s rich colouring and expressive handling, and also made notes on his portrait Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio (Palazzo Pitti, Florence), which was then in the Louvre; see folio 33 of this sketchbook (D04316).

Verso:

Blank

David Blayney Brown
July 2005

Read this catalogue entry in full

This catalogue entry is part of: David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, December 2012.