Description
Vulcan Building a Fence Around the Mount of Venus combines mythological figures with a densely imagined landscape. Venus and Cupid occupy the rocky height with attendants, while Vulcan works on the enclosure below. Small creatures and accompanying figures broaden the scene into an allegory rather than a straightforward account of construction, drawing the eye between the elevated gathering and the activity at ground level.
Made in pen and brown ink in the late fifteenth century, the drawing is attributed to the circle of Giovanni Bellini. The Metropolitan Museum of Art interprets it as an allegory of April, with imagery of love, fertility and spring. Its possible connection to a series of the months remains uncertain, but the combination of seasonal symbolism and mythological action gives the busy composition a coherent imaginative setting.
Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Giovanni Bellini collection.
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