Venus Wounded by a Rose's Thorn (c. 1516): Art, History and Details

Venus Wounded by a Rose's Thorn (c. 1516) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Marco Dente (Italian, c. 1486–1527); Raphael (Italian, 1483–1520); Antonio Salamanca (c.1500–1562).

The work and its context

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

This composition alludes to The Lament for Adonis by the Greek poet Bion (active about 100 BCE). In the poem, Venus, distraught by the death of her lover Adonis, wanders barefoot in the woods and is wounded by brambles. Although Bion implores Venus to “weep no longer in the thickets,” the poem does not describe the moment depicted here when she plucks a thorn from her foot, imaginatively conceived as a vehicle to present a classical female nude. The wide-eyed hare near Venus is an ancient symbol of fertility and sexual desire.

Object facts

• Title: Venus Wounded by a Rose's Thorn
• Date: c. 1516
• Creator attribution: Marco Dente (Italian, c. 1486–1527); Raphael (Italian, 1483–1520); Antonio Salamanca (c.1500–1562)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Print
• Technique: engraving
• Dimensions: Sheet: 26.1 x 16.8 cm (10 1/4 x 6 5/8 in.)
• Collection: PR - Engraving
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1930.581

A detail from the museum

The story featured here has been used to explain why some roses are red: they were stained with the blood of Venus after she pricked herself while walking in the forest.

Collection credit

Dudley P. Allen Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Wehn, James. "Gods and Heroes: Ancient legends found new life in Renaissance art.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 57, no. 5 (September/October 2017): 10-11.
• "Exhibitions.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 57, no. 6 (November/December 2017): 4.

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.