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Venus at the Forge of Vulcan
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Venus, the goddess of love, descends on a cloud into the forge of Vulcan, the god of fire and metalworking. This scene illustrates an episode from Virgil’s Aeneid in which Venus has come to collect the suit of armor she asked Vulcan to make for her son, Aeneas. Several putti on the left play with the finished product.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineVenus at the Forge of Vulcan, 18th century. Louis Félix de La Rue (French, 1731–1777). Pen and brown ink, and brown wash (bistre) with red chalk and traces of graphite; sheet: 19.6 x 32.2 cm (7 11/16 x 12 11/16 in.); overall: 19.9 x 32.6 cm (7 13/16 x 12 13/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Muriel Butkin, 2017.212
