Venus and Adonis

1635 · Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna

mythological

Through Cassiano dal Pozzo, secretary of Cardinal Francesco Barberini and the patron of Nicolas Poussin, Testa gained access in Rome to the circle around Poussin. Poussin's interpretation of landscape, modelled on Titian had a considerable influence on Testa's painting. He painted the Venus and Adonis in this style.

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About the Artist

Pietro Testa

1611 – 1650

Italian engraver and painter active in Rome. He trained with Domenichino and was employed by Nicolas Poussin 's patron Cassiano dal Pozzo to make antiquarian drawings, but his bizarre imagination brings him closer in spirit to his more Romantic contemporaries such as Castiglione and Rosa. His paintings are rare and he is better known as an etcher. Testa died by drowning, and it was rumoured that he killed himself.

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