Ferdinand Bol

Possibly François-Antoine Robit (1725-1815), Paris;

Possibly Pierre-Victor Fournier (d. 1831), Paris;

Possibly his estate sale, Paris, 31 May 1831, lot 19;

Private collection, Budapest, by 1902;

Private collection, Hungary and New York, 1936-1945;

Anonymous sale, Lucerne, Galerie Fischer, 21-26 November 1961, lot 2124;

Probably where acquired by Paul Vogel and Galerie Fischer, Lucerne (half-shares);

From whom acquired by John and Johanna Bass, New York, July 1965;

By whom bequeathed to the Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, in 1979 (inv. no. 79.131).

G. Elischer, A budapesti orvos-szövetség mű-kiállítása, exhibition catalogue, Budapest 1902, n.p., cat. no. 26, reproduced.

A. Pigler, Barockthemen, vol. II, Budapest 1956, pp. 242-243, reproduced;

The John and Johanna Bass Collection, Miami 1973, cat. no. 131;

A. Blankert, Ferdinand Bol (1616-1680), Rembrandt's Pupil, Doornspijk 1982, pp. 33, 47, 49, 63, 102, cat. no. 31, reproduced pl. 40;

W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, vol. I, Landau/Pfalz 1983, pp. 297, cat. no. 104, reproduced p. 343;

P. Sutton, Dutch Art in America, Grand Rapids 1986, p. 152, reproduced fig. 221;

M. Russell, in Paintings and Textiles of the Bass Museum of Art: Selections from the Collection, M. Russell (ed.), Miami Beach 1990, pp. 12-13, reproduced.

Budapest, A budapesti orvos-szövetség mű-kiállítása, 1902, no. 26.

With its monumental scale, opulent colors, and dynamic composition, this work has been described as “without a doubt one of the most important paintings by Ferdinand Bol,”¹ one of Rembrandt’s most important and successful students. While his early works faithfully reflect the influence of his teacher, Bol began to adopt a more elegant and colorful manner inspired by Flemish baroque masters over the course of his career. By 1661, when Bol executed this painting, he was at the height of his powers. 

Inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Bol produced a celebrated series of mythological scenes that culminates in the present painting, the only fully dated and most stylistically baroque canvas of the group.² The harmonious composition is suffused with movement, conveyed through the fluttering draperies and dynamic poses of the figures, and most closely resembles Bol's earlier depiction of the same subject (dated circa 1658), today in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (inv. no. SK-A-4823). Here the artist illustrates the poignant moment when Adonis, holding a spear and accompanied by his hound, bids farewell to Venus before departing on the ill-fated hunt that led to his death. Venus, accompanied by Cupid and flanked by putti, reaches out to crown her lover with a floral wreath in a symbolic and foreboding gesture. The anemones beneath Venus’s right foot are a subtle allusion to Adonis's tragic fate; these flowers, according to the myth, sprung from the god's spilt blood moments after he was mortally wounded by a wild boar.

¹ Dr. Hermann Voss quoted in the 1961 Galerie Fischer auction catalogue.

² For a discussion of the full series of works and its chronology, see A. Blanckert, Ferdinand Bol (1616-1680), Rembrandt's Pupil, Doornspijk 1982, cat. nos. 24, 27-33, 38.