Steven LeeApril 22nd, 2014

Compare and Contrast PaperRachael DiFransico

Out of so many beautiful paintings presented at the

Cleveland Museum of Art, only a handful spoke out. Two of such

works include Landscape with Venus and Adonis (1580s) by Gillis van

Coninxloo III and Joachim Anthoniz Wtewael’s The Judgment of Paris

(1602). As far as subject matters go, human figures interest me

the most. Thus naturally, Venus, who stands atop all mortals and

other divine beings in terms of physical beauty as the goddess of

love, captures my attention and does not relinquish in almost any

drawing she is featured. Coninxloo and Wtewael drew the same

subject, only twenty years apart from each other, and they have

managed to weave out two different, interesting stories.

Wtewael’s The Judgment of Paris depicts the famous behind story

of the Trojan War scene involving three most influential Greek

goddesses, Hera, Athena, and Venus. Asked to present an apple to

the goddess most beautiful, Paris chooses Venus because she

promises him the most beautiful mortal, Helen.

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During the seventeenth century, paintings were categorized

into two general styles. The first followed the orderly

Classicism represented best by Annibale Carracci. The other

displayed dramatic Naturalism made popular by Caravaggio.

Painting with rich Venetian colors, explicit chiaroscuro and

sfumato, Wtewael does not need to provide viewers a description

to inform that he was following in the steps of Carracci.

Two things attest the most to the painting’s classical

values: subject matter and composition. Along with Hera and

Athena, Venus is a goddess of Olympus, a mythological, and thus

classical, subject for an artist to draw. The painting also

features triangular composition, the famous composition style of

Classicism. Three figures on the bottom left form the first,

looser triangle; six people slightly off to the right of center,

along with the one in the air, the second; lastly, everyone in

the picture make one, big, carefully calculated triangle for

overall stability.

Wtewael painted with oil on a copper plate. The advantages

of painting on copper exist on many levels. However, the most

significant would have to be the high degree of color richness

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and the accompanying endurance against the test of time. After

all this time, currently hanging at the Cleveland Museum of Art,

the painting looks ever so vibrant.

While the painting is rich in color and thick in line thanks

to its medium and heavy chiaroscuro, it is rather small,

measuring at six inches high and eight inches wide. Fullness of

content might have been lost in the air if it had been presented

in any lighter frame. However, thankfully, the museum displays

the work within a thick, dark wooden frame that instills an air

of importance in the painting.

Without observing this painting closely enough at the

museum, I almost passed by it. Then, I was drawn back almost

immediately because its complex composition and rich colors were

visible even on my peripheral vision. When a piece of art is

smaller than a regular A4 printer page, it is not going to land

itself a significant portion on a wall at a major museum.

However, this painting best negates the notion that physically

small paintings can’t convey a clear sense of beauty. Full

Venetian colors, stable composition, and the interesting tale of

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the three goddesses, where Venus wins, make The Judgment of Paris a

little, yet powerful piece that packs quite a punch.

Unlike Wtewael’s piece, message of Landscape with Venus and

Adonis by Coninxloo isn’t so apparent. According to the

description plate at the Cleveland Museum of Art, the painting

depicts a Venus story slightly less well known than the one with

Paris. Venus unsuccessfully tries to tell her mortal lover,

Adonis, to not pursue a boar that ends up killing him. Venus, as

beautiful and powerful as she is, is illustrated with a sense of

failure; viewers get a very different sight of the goddess from

the one in The Judgment of Paris.

While Coninxloo also painted on copper, he doesn’t quite

flaunt the same level of detail. Surely, one cannot attribute the

difference to the quality of copper. Coninxloo’s painting is

maintained at the highest quality, as well. However, the loose

brushwork is what gives an open-ended atmosphere, in contrast to

the tight composition where Paris is drawn. And, the loose

brushwork is well justified as all things beyond the tree in the

near foreground are under the effect of well-executed atmospheric

perspective.

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The painting is basically dual-toned of green and red. The

smallest portion of red is on the architecture; largest and

brightest on the sky; finally, the darkest and richest on the

minute figures on the bottom left. Coninxloo deliberately chose

to match colors for the glorification of everything surrounding

and including the tiny Venus. Without knowing the title, it is

very difficult to make out the figures on the bottom of the

painting because, simply, they are too little. However, viewers

can infer that the event illustrated is of the divine when they

observe that it is rendered the same color scheme as the

expansive sky.

It is slightly beside the main thesis of this paper, but

Coninxloo’s landscape painting strikes an uncanny resemblance to

one of the landscape paintings from the sixteenth century

featured in the textbook. I cannot help but mention Albrecht

Altdorfer’s Danube Landscape (1525). Both landscape paintings

utilize atmospheric perspective, featuring German architecture.

Even the overall balance of composition seems almost directly

carried over. Altdorfer didn’t insert mythological figures as

artists of the time period tried to look away from the religious

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subject matters following the Reformation. As Coninxloo’s

landscape comes alive about sixty years later than that of

Altdorfer, however, he was probably aware of the futility of

attempting to avoid classical subjects and/or settings. Thus, he

doesn’t shy away from drawing Venus, a religious subject.

At times, subject matter comes off as the most salient in an

artwork. The Judgment of Paris and Landscape with Venus and Adonis both

contain Venus. The sexy goddess of beauty is the center of

attention regardless of her placement or size. However, format,

composition, and style supporting a subject can sculpt it into

any tale of an artist’s wildest fantasies.

Stokstad, Marilyn, and Michael Cothren. Art History. 5th ed. Boston:

Pearson, 2013. Print.

"Landscape with Venus and Adonis." Cleveland Museum of Art. N.p.,

n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.

"The Judgment of Paris." Cleveland Museum of Art. N.p., n.d. Web. 24

Apr. 2014.

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