Joseph Mallord William Turner

Venus at the Forge of Vulcan, after Anthony Van Dyck

1802

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Studies in the Louvre Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 128 × 114 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D04291
Turner Bequest LXXII 16

Catalogue entry

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

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