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All our images can be downloaded in high resolution from our website for non-commercial use (research/study, educational purposes, personal blogs and social media).
Would you like to use our images in a publication? Please mention our credit line: "Mauritshuis, The Hague."
Commercial use
Would you like to use our images for commercial purposes? We would be happy to discuss this with you. Please contact our marketing department at images@mauritshuis.nl.
All our images can be downloaded in high resolution from our website for non-commercial use (research/study, educational purposes, personal blogs and social media).
Would you like to use our images in a publication? Please mention our credit line: "Mauritshuis, The Hague."
Commercial use
Would you like to use our images for commercial purposes? We would be happy to discuss this with you. Please contact our marketing department at images@mauritshuis.nl.
All our images can be downloaded in high resolution from our website for non-commercial use (research/study, educational purposes, personal blogs and social media).
Would you like to use our images in a publication? Please mention our credit line: "Mauritshuis, The Hague."
Commercial use
Would you like to use our images for commercial purposes? We would be happy to discuss this with you. Please contact our marketing department at images@mauritshuis.nl.
All our images can be downloaded in high resolution from our website for non-commercial use (research/study, educational purposes, personal blogs and social media).
Would you like to use our images in a publication? Please mention our credit line: "Mauritshuis, The Hague."
Commercial use
Would you like to use our images for commercial purposes? We would be happy to discuss this with you. Please contact our marketing department at images@mauritshuis.nl.
Joachim Wtewael Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan
1601
On view in Room 16
This meticulously painted little work is a typical example of the Mannerist style, which was in fashion around 1600. The style is characterised by naked figures in complex graceful poses. Joachim Wtewael painted this work on smooth copper, which lends itself well to painting fine details.
The painting depicts the adultery of Venus and Mars. Venus’ husband Vulcan – standing with his back to us on the left – has caught the couple in the act, and is exposing the deceit to the gods who have gathered around.
Wtewael also included a still life in front of the bed. It is made up of items of clothing discarded by Venus and Mars – as if they could not get into bed quickly enough. Lying there is Mars’s cuirass, together with his spear and sword. In the shadows close to Mars´s spear are Venus’s red slippers. For a 17th-century viewer, these slippers would have had an erotic meaning – they represented the female sexual organs.
Listen and discover more about this painting
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WATCH : Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcanus
Joachim Wtewael Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan
(?) Melchior Wijntgis, Middelburg, 1604; Prince William V, the Het Loo Palace, Apeldoorn, 1757; transferred, c.1822
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