Venus at Vulcan essays

Venus at Vulcan essays A French painter named Francois Boucher, well-known for his rococo style paintings that commonly portrayed rustic and mythological scenes. Francois Boucher was born in France. He was the son of a lace designer. His greatest influence when growing up was Antoine Watteau. He admired his delicate style of painting. When Bocher grew up he decided to leave France and off to Rome. In Rome he studied with the painter Francois Le Moyne. In 1723 won the Prix De Rome. He studied in Rome from 1727 to 1731. When Bocher returned to France he created over hundreds of paintings. Bouchers work caught the eye of the royals, he was made first painter to the king. He became the director of the Royal Academy, and designer for the Royal Porcelain Works. Bouchers work also was a delight to the public, they enjoyed his delicate depictions of divinities. He was also considered the most fashionable painter of his time. One of his greatest paintings is the Venus at Vulcans Forge. Boucher was very ill while in the process of painting this work, and he had only a year to live. His illness did not effect the outcome of his painting. This painting was inspired by Virgils narrative in the eighth book of The Aeneid, in which Venus induces Vulcan to forge the arms for her mortal son Aeneas, champion of the Torjans against the the Greeks. Vulcan strains forward, presenting the sword toward Venus with a sense of urgency and yearning clearly visible on his face. Seized by passion, he is totally under the sway of Venus , a fact Boucher stresses by the doves and putto reclining on his lap and by the putto on Venuss side, who aims his arrow directly at Vulcans heart. Vulcan has succumbed to love, a fire more subtle and more powerful that that with which he forges s ...