Venus adorned by the Graces

The painting arrived in the Museum in 1834, along with other works belonging to the large collection that the Vicenza nobleman Carlo Vicentini Dal Giglio left to the Civic Art Gallery.

The painting depicts the goddess Venus, relaxing on a light white sheet surrounded by the three Graces – Aglaea, Euphrosyne and Thalia – who are dropping a delicate cascade of roses onto her, while a tiny Eros peeps out from behind her. The subject, one of the most frequent in the repertoire of Pietro Liberi, stresses the full, soft and sinuous forms of the female nudes, only partly covered by thin transparent veils. The rosy flesh of the women’s bodies stands out against the grey background, lightly streaked with white, and it is further enhanced by the “diaphanous tone of the colour turning to pearly iridescence” (Avagnina). With its delicacy, its eroticism and its sensuality, the painting is an exaltation of the senses and forms.

The work, once ascribed to artists who followed the school or manner of Pietro Liberi, was later attributed to Marco Liberi, Pietro’s son. Today, however, the high quality of execution of the painting favours the attribution to Pietro Liberi himself, who perhaps worked on it in collaboration with his son.