(Padua 1588–1641 Venice)
Mars and Venus,
oil on canvas, 110 x 93 cm, unframed

Provenance:
Private European collection, since at least 1875

We are grateful to Bernard Aikema for confirming the attribution after examining the present painting in the original.

The source of the present subject is to be found in Ovid’s Ars Amatoria (II: 561–600): During a secret encounter between the gods, unknown to Vulcan, Venus and Mars embrace each other. Padovanino depicts the protagonists in the foreground, while the nude goddess, wearing only a diadem holding her hair, is seated on her robes, Mars, wears his shining armour as he draws his lover closer. The figures fill the pictorial space almost completely, in the background an interior with an opening to the sky beyond.

For the formal and compositional solutions, the present painting can be compared to the Orpheus and Euridice and the Abduction of Proserpine in the Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice (see U. Ruggeri (ed.), Il Padovanino, Soncino 1993). In all these paintings close resemblance can be observed in the female figures’ features.

Little is known of Padovanino’s early years and training, although Boschini (1674) reports that he studied by copying the frescoes of Titian in the Scuola di San Antonio, Padua. While the influence of Titian (1488/90–1576) remained dominant throughout Padovanino’s career, when he moved to Venice around 1614 he took inspiration from the city’s other most celebrated artists of the Cinquecento, and especially from the works of Veronese (1528–1588) and Tintoretto (1518/19–1594).