Venus Anadyomene

Barry, James (Irish painter, printmaker, and lithographer, 1741-1806, active in England)

Venus Anadyomene

Date

1983

Authors

Barry, James (Irish painter, printmaker, and lithographer, 1741-1806, active in England)

Publisher

The Tate Gallery

Citation

William L. Pressly, James Barry: Artist as Hero, London: The Tate Gallery, 1983. p 53-4, no 3

Description

This painting is of Venus Anadyomene, or Venus rising out of the sea at her birth. Barry's interpretation follows descriptions of Apelles' (the 4th century BC, Greek artist) celebrated work of the same subject in which Venus wrings out her wet hair. He also used other classical texts for various details including Lucretius' 'De Rerum Natura' and Hesiod's 'The Theogony' which suggested the dispersing clouds, calm sea, rainbow, mating birds, and the plants which spring up at the touch of her foot upon the shore. The statue of the Venus de' Medici was the model Barry used for the rounded proportions of the Venus in this painting. The artist's study of Titian is evident in the colouring with its subtle, warm modulations. With a few exceptions, this painting was met with great critical acclaim at its presentation and it became the most frequently engraved of Barry's works, through these influencing artists in both France and America.(Pressly, 54) For related images see images see image numbers cgjc0756 and cgjc0766.