Venus and the Dying Adonis

Entry

This small, but highly detailed and dynamic ivory relief shows Venus who rushes to the aid of her mortal lover Adonis (Ovid, Met. 10:708-739). Just visible behind the goddess of love is the head of the wild boar that had inflicted Adonis’s fatal wound. The narrative ends tragically, as represented by the weeping figure of Cupid, who descends from the sky above.

Francis van Bossuit (1635-1692) is seen as one of the most important Netherlandish ivory carvers of the seventeenth century.⁴ Born in Brussels and trained in Antwerp, around 1680 he established himself as a sculptor in Amsterdam, where he remained active until his death in 1691. Van Bossuit’s move to the north was preceded by a lengthy stay in Rome from 1655 on, a period decisive for his stylistic evolution. Under the influence of Artus Quellinus I (1609-1668) and Rombout Verhulst (1624-1698) in Amsterdam, this resulted in an italianized Northern Baroque style.⁵ Characteristic of Van Bossuit’s masterfully carved reliefs are the stippled background and a format liken to a recessed, framed panel.

The present relief is among Van Bossuit’s finest works, as confirmed by its inclusion in Mattys Pool’s publication entitled Beeld-snyders Kunst-kabinet door den vermaarden Beeldsnijder Francis van Bossuit, in ivoor gesneden en geboetseerd (Sculptor’s Art Cabinet by the Esteemed Sculptor Francis van Bossuit, Carved and Modelled in Ivory) (fig. a). Posthumously published with ninety-five etchings and an accompanying text in three different languages, Pool’s comprehensive overview presented a significant portion of Van Bossuit’s oeuvre, thereby confirming the substantial renown his work had already garnered by this time. The print preceding the etching with the dying Adonis shows another relief by Van Bossuit, which depicts the mythological young man before the fatal attack, engaged in an intimate embrace with his beloved Venus (present whereabouts unknown).

One of the two reliefs with Venus and Adonis – as will become apparent below, most likely the present piece – formerly belonged to the famous art cabinet of Petronella Oortmans-De la Court (1624-1707), the wife of an Amsterdam merchant. She possessed no less than ten works by the sculptor, including his Mars (BK-1998-74), the only known surviving freestanding sculpture by Van Bossuit, today preserved in the Rijksmuseum. Petronella’s husband, Adam Oortmans (1622-1684), even spent some time studying under the sculptor on an amateur basis, leaving no doubt the Amsterdam couple shared an exceptional bond with the Flemish artist.⁶

Another great admirer of Van Bossuit’s work was Pieter de la Court van der Voort (1664-1739) of Leiden, Petronella’s grand-nephew. This highly affluent textile merchant owned not only an original ivory by the sculptor, he also commissioned an additional twelve casts of other works (present whereabouts unknown),⁷ five of which were made from the ivories in the collection of his Amsterdam ‘aunt’. Among these reproductions of Van Bossuit’s work is a cast listed as ‘1 Venus and Adonis cast of metal over the original in ivory made by Francis, there being only 3 casts in the world and this the only of metal in 1 black ebony frame being 1 round but 1 square frame’.⁸ One indication that this description likely pertains to the present relief with the dying Adonis – as opposed to the version with the young man (as yet) unharmed – is the adoption of the same composition by the Leiden painter Willem van Mieris for his rendering of Rinaldo and Armida (fig. b) from 1709.⁹ This work was in fact commissioned by Pieter de la Court van der Voort, Van Mieris’s close friend and most important patron. It would appear the composition appealed so greatly to the collector that, in addition to the cast, he ordered a painted variant to be made.¹⁰

Bieke van der Mark, 2025