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The Glorification of Venus, 1717

  • wool (textile), silk (textile)
  • 408 x 515 cm
  • Inv. 1994-F-3

Public Domain

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In 1716, the Viscounty of the Oudburg in Ghent commissioned a series of tapestries devoted to the Exaltation of the Gods. The Viscounty was a fief of the County of Flanders, located within the walls of the Counts’ Castle. Barely a year later, the tapestries were hung in the Castellany. The Oudburg arms appears in the middle of each tapestry. Oudburg College was closed down during the period of French revolutionary occupation and the Viscounty building was demolished. The series ended up in the Museum of Fine Art in 1904, having had several homes in the interim. The last of the five tapestries, The Exaltation of Venus, offers a kind of summary of the others. The Goddess of Love, surrounded by putti or amoretti, is enthroned on a cloud from where she rules over land and sea. Humans and gods alike are under her dominion – she is admired by all Olympus, represented here by Jupiter and his wife Juno, Apollo, Mars and the demigod Hercules with his lion-skin and club. Neptune and his retinue gaze up at her longingly from the sea, and even the chaste Diana, slumbering beneath a canopy, is the target of an amoretto’s arrows and the prying eyes of satyrs. In the upper left of the tapestry, we see Venus and Mars in a adulterous embrace. Mars symbolises the thirst for power, while Venus stands for the tenderness of love – opposing forces that merge harmoniously in the balanced personality.

Artist

Urbanus Leyniers RKD
Brussels 1674 - Brussels 1747
workshop / studio

Daniël II Leyniers RKD
Brussels 1669 - Brussels 1728
workshop / studio

Hendrik Reydams
Brussels 1600 - 1669
workshop / studio

Jan van Orley RKD Wikidata
Brussels 1665 - Brussels 1735
cartoons (working drawings)AAT

Aurèle Augustin Coppens
Brussels 1668 - Brussels 1740
cartoons (working drawings)AAT

Title The Glorification of Venus
Date 1717
Period 18th century
Location Brussels TGN
Collection decorative arts (discipline) AAT
Object type tapestries AAT
Inventory number 1994-F-3
Acquisition credit transfer
Stadhuis
Ghent
1994
Permalink https://mskgent.be/collection/work/data/1994-F-3
IIIF Manifest https://imagehub.mskgent.be/iiif/3/3958/manifest.json
Art & Architecture Thesaurus 300417629 mythologies (religious concept) AAT
Keywords Iconclass 25F27(DOLPHIN) swimming mammals: dolphin Iconclass
25G3 trees Iconclass
25H217 river bank Iconclass
25H2322 sea Iconclass
26A clouds Iconclass
42D39 adultery Iconclass
9 Classical Mythology and Ancient History Iconclass
92 gods ~ classical mythology Iconclass
92B1 (story of) Jupiter (Zeus) Iconclass
92B3 (story of) Apollo (Phoebus) Iconclass
92B4 (story of) Mars (Ares) Iconclass
92C the great goddesses of Heaven, and their train Iconclass
92C4 (story of) Venus (Aphrodite) Iconclass
92C41 early life, prime youth of Venus Iconclass
92C411 birth of Venus; Venus Anadyomene: after Uranus' castration Venus rises from the sea wringing the water from her hair; usually she is awaited by the Hours Iconclass
92C4111 Venus, standing on a shell, sails with her veil over the water (alternatively she is riding on a dolphin): Venus Marina Iconclass
92D1916 cupids: 'amores', 'amoretti', 'putti' Iconclass
92H1 (story of) Neptune (Poseidon) Iconclass
92H2 (story of) Amphitrite Iconclass
92L3 nymphs (in general); 'Ninfe in commune' (Ripa) Iconclass
92L4 satyrs, fauns, Sileni Iconclass
94L (story of) Hercules (Heracles) Iconclass
School / Style Rococo AAT
'Tapijtwerkers en tapijtwerk te Gent', in: Duizend jaar kunst en cultuur / Erik Duverger. - Gent : [s.n.] : [s.a.] (dl. III, p. 550-557)
'De triomf van Mars, een Brussels wandtapijt in de Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst / Ingrid De Meûter. - Brussel : [s.n.] : [s.a.] (p. 123-137)
200 jaar verzamelen : Collectieboek Museum voor Schone Kunsten Gent / Arnout Balis, Robert Hoozee, Maximiliaan P.J. Martens, Paul Van Haute. - Gent : Ludion, 2000 (p. 110 (ill. 53), 270)
Het Museum voor Schone Kunsten Gent : een keuze uit de mooiste werken / Patrick De Rynck. - Gent : Ludion, 2007 (p. 54-55)
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