TINTORETTO VULCANUS TAKES MARS AND VENUS UNAWARES. MUNCHEN Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti) (1518-1594)

Description of Jacopo Tintoretto’s Venus, Vulcan, and Mars

One of painter Jacopo Tintoretto’s first works is considered to be his Venus, Vulcan and Mars. The painting was painted in oil on canvas, in 1550. The size of the canvas is 135x198 cm. In it we can clearly see how much influence Titian had on Tintoretto.

It is based on a classical mythological subject described by Homer in The Odyssey (8 Songs). According to the original source (Homer’s Odyssey), Venus was unfaithful to her husband Vulcan and the young and beautiful god Mars. The jealous Vulcan caught the lovers in a net and exposed them to the ridicule of the inhabitants of Olympus.

Tintoretto decided to show his viewers the myth in his own way. The god Vulcan suddenly appears in the room of his wife Venus. She had previously engaged in amorous pleasures with Mars (this is evidenced by the head of Mars, which before the appearance of Vulcan decided to hide at a table not far from the matrimonial bed). In Homer’s Odyssey the lovers are exposed to the gods. Here too, Tintoretto decided to portray the picture in his own way - Cupid, instead of protecting the lovers from trouble, sleeps peacefully in the depths of the painting.

Tintoretto showed a frivolous theme in his work, involuntarily causing the viewer to smile. The theme of opposite characters, their unequal marriage, stands out in the story. As opposites we note a woman with the body of a young maiden and an old man with beautiful muscles and a graying beard. Their bodies help the viewer to feel the depth of the work. This rhythmicization of the canvas characterizes the maturity of Tintoretto’s work.