Venus mother of Aeneas presenting him with arms forged by Vulcan

Venus mother of Aeneas presenting him with arms forged by Vulcan

            Venus mother of Aeneas, presenting him with arms forged by Vulcan, is one of the greatest pieces of art by Nicolas Poussin. He was a French painter in the classical style. Poussin’s s work is unique in many ways, as it contains predominant features of logic, clarity, and order (Olson et al., 45). Venus, mother of Aeneas, presenting him with arms forged by Vulcan, is a canvas produced between 1636 and 1637. Its dimensions are 108* 134.6 cm. As with many of the paintings by Poussin, this painting is motivated by Ovid’s metamorphoses, biblical stories, and history. Venus mother of Aeneas presenting him with arms forged by Vulcan is on display at the art gallery of Ontario, Toronto. The current form of the canvas was developed in 2015, which was a high-resolution copy of the original canvas.

Poussin’s Venus mother of Aeneas, presenting him with arms forged by Vulcan, is a canvas made of oil on canvas. The scene depicted is Venus, handing over the armor to Aeneas. Most of the art made before the advent of digital technology has been reproduced and displayed in different museums worldwide. The current form of the Venus mother of Aeneas, presenting him with arms forged by Vulcan, digitized in 2015, shows how the painting has evolved since being produced for the first time between 1636 and 1637. Possibly, this canvas was commissioned by the prince of Cellamere. It was donated to the Art gallery of Ontario in 1945,  by Reuben Wells Leonard estate, and since then, it has been reproduced and digitized many times (Orso et al., 13). Copies of the canvas is currently in sale in many online platforms. In its current display, it is object number 48/5. Despite its fairly good condition at the Art gallery of Ontario, there is a huge gap in its provenance, between 1841 and 1945.

Venus mother of Aeneas, presenting him with arms forged by Vulcan, is a canvas nearly 400 years old. It represents an age-old scene where a mother is sending off her son for a battle. In the contemporary world, one would think it is a painful scene, but looking at the canvas, it is evident that the mother is overjoyed as she sees her son start his journey to war. Typically, it is a moment of glory for her and the family, and she seems oblivious to the obvious risks of war. The winged figures in the canvas also play a significant role in developing the theme of the painting. The goddesses Venus is seen flying in in a chariot pulled by Putti. This is of great significance as most of Poussin’s paintings are inspired by religion, especially biblical teachings (Cropper et al., 21).In most of the war stories told in the Bible, there were always supreme beings that were supposed to help warriors achieve victory. From the canvas, Venus is seen presenting the armor that is supposed to make him invisible in the upcoming battle.  Despite the supposed impact of the assistance by Venus in the war, the mother and son show little emotion, which is in contrast to the expectations pf the goddess.

While there is so underestimating the social role played by most of the pieces of art by Nicolas Poussin, the Venus mother of Aeneas presenting him with arms forged by Vulcan canvas hugely succeed in showing the role of emotion in achieving the social themes desired in a piece of art (Unglaib et al., 23). Despite the fact that the canvas was first produced almost 400 years ago when much of today’s digital interventions in the art industry, this painting embodies all the characteristics of art. The painting perfectly imitates the gods, despite them not being visible by man, to create an illusion of the goddess handing over the armor. One is left with the question as to why the gods of antiquity should occupy the seemingly empty humanly landscape depicted in the painting. Looking closely at Aenas shield, only a few texts from Aeneid are seen, and they are mostly faded. This perfectly shows the limitations and potential of the painting and the significance of the levels of improvement needed to make contemporary art meet the ancient art standards. Generally, the Venus mother of Aeneas, presenting him with arms forged by Vulcan canvas epitomizes the role of religion in the lives of people at the time it was produced. It is easy to tell that the community at the time Poussin produced this canvas had a strong belief that there were supreme beings that could define the destiny of human beings. In my opinion, this canvas tells a two thousand years old story in the biblical teachings, when God would send angels to help His people at times of acrimony. This is concurrent with many of Poussin’s paintings, which are inspired by religion.

The subject of any piece of art is, in many cases, not identifiable at first glance. This is not because the motifs are hugely unfamiliar, but because they are way too familiar. A good example is the Venus mother of Aeneas, presenting him with arms forged by Vulcan canvas. Many viewers believe that the canvas depicts Aenas receiving arms from Venus. This is a fairly familiar subject. Certainly, this kind of interpretation looks very promising a glance. From the foreground, the God Vulcan is visible and is seen kneeling displaying pieces of armor. The winged creature, which is the goddess Venus, can be seen in the canvas. Venus is scantily dressed in a silver, greyish robe and is accompanied by two putti. For viewers who are not keen enough, this might create an impression that the man seen leaning against the horse is Venus’ immortal son, Aeneas. In reality, this canvas would represent the moment Venus presents her son with an armor that was specially forged by Vulcan. After thorough scrutiny, this subject turns out to be ambiguous. Venus saw the desperation of her son, and she decided to gift him the armor so that he would not be defeated in a battle. Nevertheless, Poussin’s art perfectly leaves a viewer guessing on the potential subject of his canvas of Venus mother of Aeneas, presenting him with arms forged by Vulcan. Few people will realize the cool stream that Aeneas finds himself in before Venus comes in to give him an armor forged by Vulcan.

Conclusively, the Venus mother of Aeneas, presenting him with arms forged by Vulcan, is one of the most popular works by Nicolas Poussin. It is almost entirely based on religious themes, and it perfectly embodies the role played by religion in ancient society. The artist himself had an identity of designing most of his works based on religious themes, which was popular in the classical era of art. However, the emerging of neo-classical art in the late 18^th century rendered most of the renowned classical artists, including Nicholas Poussin irrelevant. In terms of his standing on classical art history, he is renowned as one of the most successful artists of his time. In the canvas Venus mother of Aeneas, presenting him with arms forged by Vulcan, Poussin perfectly develops the theme of religion using several stylistic art features. However, he makes it incredibly difficult to understand the role played by the two putti on the canvas. It is evident that Venus and Aeneas show little emotion as the armor is presented. The putti, however, seem excited by the drama, which shows how traditional art was subtly designed to reveal certain themes. Generally, classical art still has a lot of relevance in the contemporary world, and the use of motifs to reveal the themes desired by the artists is an outstanding feature of this style of art.

Bibliography

Cropper, Elizabeth, and Charles Dempsey. Nicolas Poussin: Friendship and the love of painting. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996.

Olson, Todd, and Nicolas Poussin. Poussin and France: Painting, humanism, and the politics of style. Yale University Press, 2002.

Orso, Steven N. “A Mythological Subject by Jordaens Reinterpreted.” Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University, vol. 35, no. 2, 1976, pp. 2–13, doi:10.2307/3774462

Unglaub, Jonathan, and Nicolas Poussin. Poussin and the poetics of painting: Pictorial narrative and the legacy of Tasso. Cambridge University Press, 2006.