Venus and the Lute Player

Venus and the Lute Player, ca. 1565-70, Titian and Workshop, Oil on Canvas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Far in the background a blue mountain waits

To echo back the song

The note-necked swan, while it reverberates,

Paddles the tune along.

The player is a young man richly dressed.

His hand is never mute.

But quick in motion as if it caressed

Both lady and the lute.

Nude as the sunlit air the lady rests.

She does not listen with her dainty ear,

But trembles at the love song as her breasts

Turn pink to hear.

She does not rise up at his voice's fall,

But takes that music in,

By pointed leg and searching hand, with all

Her naked skin.

Out of that scene, far off, her hot eyes fall,

Hoping they will take in

The nearing lover, whom she can give all

Her naked skin.

~ Paul Engle

In Zakynthos

Birth of Venus, 1862, Oil On Canvas,
Eugène Amaury-Duval (copyright at bottom)

No more and never will touch the sacred shores
where the little boy lay my body, 
Zakynthos mine that mirrors you nell'onde 
the greek virgin birth came in off sea 

Venus and fea those fertile islands
with his first smile,
so not silent clear your clouds
and your leaves
towards the illustrious man who waters 

Ulysses Returns Chryseis to her Father, c. 1644,
Oil on Canvas, Claude Lorrain (copyright at bottom)

sang fatal, and a different exile 
so nice of fame and misfortune 
kissed her stony Ithaca Ulysses. 

You do not have nothing but the singing of his son,
or my mother earth, we prescribed 
Fate illacrimata burial. 

Alone, Illustration for Edgar Allen Poe, Edmund Dulac

~ Ugo Foscolo

"The sonnet begins with a triple negation (which is a bitter realization of the poet's loss of his home), and ends with the final judgment of his exile and his illacrimata burial in a foreign land. Between these two poles is contained negative, through the binding of the images and wonderful nostalgic representation of the ideal world of the poet of childhood and the mythical transfiguration of his own experience of exile that is through the analogy between his figure is that of Ulysses. Ulysses, "looking for fame and misfortune" is the image of the poet, himself an exile magnanimously opposed by fate and by man, but above all represents the new concept of the romantic hero, the great strength and dignity with which bears the ravages of misfortune (the exile hesitated, however, will be different; Foscolo unlike Ulysses will be buried in a foreign land and no one will pay for the teardrops on his grave). Other mythic images are also present in the verses, which is that of Homer's poetry eternatrice and heroism of the highest values ​​and Venus, according to myth was born from the foam of the sea, symbol of the fertilizing nature, beauty and harmony, which With her smile has made fruitful and flourishing homeland of the poet (http://www.antelitteram.com/antologia/foscolo.htm)." 

"Fate illacrimata burial" is essentially an unmourned and unlamented burial..... 

Birth of Venus, Eugène Amaury-Duval, 1862, Oil On Canvas, 197x109 cm, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lille,Image and original data provided by Réunion des Musées Nationaux / Art Resource, N.Y., http://www.artres.com/c/htm/Home.aspx, Rights -Contact information: Ryan Jensen, General Manager, Art Resource, 536 Broadway (5th floor), New York, N.Y. 10012; Tel No: (212) 505-8700; Fax: (212) 505-2653; Email: RJensen@artres.com / Please note that if this image is under copyright, you may need to contact one or more copyright owners for any use that is not permitted under the ARTstor Terms and Conditions of Use or not otherwise permitted by law. While ARTstor tries to update contact information, it cannot guarantee that such information is always accurate. Determining whether those permissions are necessary, and obtaining such permissions, is your sole responsibility.


Ulysses Returns Chryseis to her Father, Claude Lorrain, c. 1644, Oil on Canvas, 119x150 cm, Musée du Louvre,Image and original data provided by SCALA, Florence/ART RESOURCE, N.Y. / http://www.artres.com/c/htm/Home.aspx & http://www.scalarchives.com / Image Rights:(c) 2006, SCALA, Florence / ART RESOURCE, N.Y. Please note that if this image is under copyright, you may need to contact one or more copyright owners for any use that is not permitted under the ARTstor Terms and Conditions of Use or not otherwise permitted by law. While ARTstor tries to update contact information, it cannot guarantee that such information is always accurate. Determining whether those permissions are necessary, and obtaining such permissions, is your sole responsibility.

Bond and Free - Frost & Francois Boucher

'Fountain of Venus', 1756, Francois Boucher, French Oil on Canvas
CopyRight at bottom of page from Cleveland Museum of Art

Bond and Free


Love has earth to which she clings 
With hills and circling arms about-- 
Wall within wall to shut fear out. 
But Though has need of no such things, 
For Thought has a pair of dauntless wings. 


On snow and sand and turn, I see 
Where Love has left a printed trace 
With straining in the world's embrace. 
And such is Love and glad to be 
But Though has shaken his ankles free. 


Though cleaves the interstellar gloom 
And sits in Sirius' disc all night, 
Till day makes him retrace his flight 
With smell of burning on every plume, 
Back past the sun to an earthly room. 


His gains in heaven are what they are. 
Yet some say Love by being thrall 
And simply staying possesses all 
In several beauty that Thought fares far 
To find fused in another star.


~Robert Frost, 1916

The Toilet of Venus, 1751, Francois Boucher, French, Oil on Canvas
Copy Rights at the end of this post from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Boucher utilized earth tones for the background and drapery around Venus so that when he used his delicate tones on Venus the viewer is immediately drawn to her.  The diagonal lines and implied lines draw the viewers' eyes around the canvas noting every detail of her toilet.  Boucher is famous for his use of color to portray a mythical event which invites the viewer into a world which is only achievable through art.  


Boucher's portrayal of Venus, the goddess of love, is in her toilet and as a fountain (in the painting above) grounding in earth and in earthly things.  This is quite common in portraying Venus after her 'birth'.  In relation to Frost's poetry the two artists are actually portraying a similar theme.... love exists here, on earth.... grounded by nature and our human needs and desires...


Frost initially compares love as being bound and confined while thought is free.... Love leaves marks as in the sand and snow... Thought has shaken it's ankle free.... By the 4th stanza Frost begins to show that thoughts must travel to the stars "And sit in Sirius' disc all night, Till day makes him retrace his flight..." while love in stanza 5 does not have to leave to effect anyone, it possesses all without ever going anywhere... Frost is emphasizing the importance of love and gentleness as thought is shackled without love...




Fountain of Venus, Boucher - This image was provided by The Cleveland Museum of Art. Contact information: Kathleen Kornell, Rights and Reproductions Coordinator, The Cleveland Museum of Art, 11150 East Blvd., Cleveland OH 44106, (216) 707-2498 (ph), (216) 421-8815 (fax), Kkornell@clevelandart.org. 

The Toilet of Venus, Boucher -This image was provided by The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Contact information: Image Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028, (212) 396-5050 (fax), Scholars.License@MetMuseum.org Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art 

Vulcan Presenting Venus with Arms for Aeneas by Francois Boucher

Vulcan Presenting Venus with Arms for Aeneas, Francois Boucher, 1757,
Oil on Canvas, 321 x 320 cm, Musee du Louvre

Venus' husband, Vulcan, the god of fire and the forge crafted arms for Aeneas at her pleading for his battle with Turnus.  Virgil writes of Aeneas in 'The Aeneid', the son of the Trojan mortal Anchises and Venus, the goddess of beauty and erotic love.  Aeneas is bestowed with divine protection because of Venus. He is chosen to survive the siege of Troy and to lay the foundations in Italy for the glory of the Roman Empire. In the Aeneid, Aeneas’s fate as Rome’s founder propels the story forward and the sequence of events frequently conveys that Aeneas’s heroism is to be indebted as much to his legacy as to his own choices and deeds. Aeneas provides the medium for the fates to carry out its design.  Boucher utilizes his creamy brush strokes and rich colorization to bring to life the mythological history of the exchange of the armor made for Venus' son who is half mortal and half god.  Although this is a Rococo period work, the elements of the Baroque style are still evident in the dramatic triangles, implied diagonal lines criss crossing the canvas, and the bottom of the canvas appearing as if the viewer could step into this dreamy world of gods, goddesses, putti, and myth.