Venus with a Burning Urn (c. 1500–1520): Art, History and Details

Venus with a Burning Urn (c. 1500–1520) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Venus is the Roman goddess of many virtues, including Love, Charity, Fertility, and Victory. Here, Venus is represented as the goddess of Charity. She wears a crown, as Charity is often depicted as the Queen of the Virtues. The flaming lamp in Venus's left hand was also a symbol of Charity in Venice, where this piece is thought to have originated. The bent fingers of her right hand are bent suggest that Venus may have once held another object. Renaissance sculptors often looked back to antiquity when producing monumental and small bronze statues. The small bronze cabinet piece comes into Italian art during this time, bringing ancient gods and goddesses into Italian households. Venus stands in a contrapposto pose and, like Hellenistic and Roman objects, her locks are tied by a double ribbon while two curls fall on her shoulders. Her tilted head and large emotional eyes, as well as her small nose and parted lips reflect the influence of Hellenistic Greek facial styles.

Object facts

• Title: Venus with a Burning Urn
• Date: c. 1500–1520
• Culture: Northern Italy, 16th century
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: gilt bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 19.6 x 6.3 x 4 cm (7 11/16 x 2 1/2 x 1 9/16 in.); with base: 28.6 x 7 x 7 cm (11 1/4 x 2 3/4 x 2 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Sculpture
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1948.171

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Milliken, William M. “Recent Accessions in Bronze.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 36, no. 1 (1949): 5–7.
• Pope-Hennessy, John. “Recent Research.” The Burlington Magazine 91, no. 557 (1949): 233–234.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.