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Without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus Would Freeze

A work made of pen and brown ink, with brush and brown wash, over traces of charcoal, heightened with opaque white watercolor (partially discolored), on buff laid paper.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of pen and brown ink, with brush and brown wash, over traces of charcoal, heightened with opaque white watercolor (partially discolored), on buff laid paper.

Date:

1590–95

Artist:

Abraham Bloemaert
Dutch, 1566-1651

About this artwork

The Roman goddess Venus reclines languidly in the center of the composition. Cupid serves her a cup of wine; Ceres, the goddess of crops, appears behind her holding a sheaf of wheat, while an inebriated Bacchus leans against a wine barrel at right. The traditional title for this scene—a quotation from a play by the Roman comedian Terence—became a popular proverb in the Renaissance, inspiring numerous visual depictions in the period. The adage wryly suggests that sensual desire (represented by Venus) is stimulated by food (Ceres) and wine (Bacchus). While Abraham Bloemaert probably made this drawing as an independent work, he also produced numerous designs for prints.

Status

On View, Gallery 213

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Abraham Bloemaert

Title

Without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus Would Freeze

Place

Netherlands (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1590–1595

Medium

Pen and brown ink, with brush and brown wash, over traces of charcoal, heightened with opaque white watercolor (partially discolored), on buff laid paper

Inscriptions

Inscribed verso, center, in graphite: “5411 / frb”; lower center, in graphite: “Donato Parigi / Sienna 1680”; lower right, in graphite: “Uytewal”

Dimensions

14.7 × 19.5 cm (5 13/16 × 7 11/16 in.)

Credit Line

Regenstein Endowment Fund

Reference Number

2020.256

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/242148/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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