Without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus Would Freeze

Prints and Drawings

1590–95

Abraham Bloemaert
Dutch, 1566-1651

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: Currently Off View
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

Jaap Bolten, Abraham Bloemaert, c. 1565–1651: The Drawings, 2 vols. (Leiden: J. Bolten, 2007), no. 575, I: 202; II: 262 (ill.).

Dr. Curt Glaser (1879–1943), Berlin; sold, Max Perl, Berlin, May 18, 1933, lot 669, (as Wtewael,) to Richard Holtkott (1866–1950), Bedburg, Germany [his stamp (Lugt 4266), verso, lower left in purple ink]; by descent to his grandson, Kerry County, Ireland; sold to David Lachenmann, Zurich, around 1992 [email correspondence with David Lachenmann]; sold through Artemis Fine Art S.A., Vaduz, to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2020.

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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.

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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.

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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.