The Triumph of Venus

Venus is borne in triumph through the sea, standing in a shell drawn by doves and attended by a train of sea gods, nereids and putti who swirl around her in the agitated, flickering manner that is Magnasco’s alone — small, twisting figures dashed in with quick strokes of brilliant blue, rose and gold against the grey-green water and the lowering sky. Alessandro Magnasco, the Genoese “painter of witches and friars” who worked in Milan, here turned the festive marine allegory into a shimmer of nervous energy, the bright accents of the drapery vibrating against the shadowy coast. He painted the canvas as the pendant to his Bacchanale, also in the Getty collection, in the same years of his early Milanese career — the pair completing an ancient festival of wine and love. The painting is held in the J. Paul Getty Museum.