3-097-568 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Death of Adonis, 1723-1725. Companion piece to The Birth of Adonis. The myth of Adonis was recurrent in Rococo painting due to its dramatic richness and its ability to integrate erotic, amorous, and tragic elements into pastoral settings of great chromatic delicacy. Here Venus hovers over the dying Adonis who has been the mortally wounded by a boar. A cherub extinguishes a flaming torch, symbolising a life snuffed out.