Size: Joachim Wtewael: Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan

• Anne W. Lowenthal

  The Dutch artist Joachim Wtewael was a history painter especially admired for his astonishing small paintings on copper. The J. Paul Getty Museum's Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan is one of his finest works in this unusually demanding medium. Though only eight inches high, this Mannerist painting contains eleven figures in three different spaces, captured in a dramatically complex moment from the famous story told by Ovid in his Metamorphoses.

  This book features a discussion of Wtewael's painting as well as a detailed analysis of the broader context in which the work was created, considering relevant historical, cultural, chronological, and similar issues.

  Anne W. Lowenthal's dissertation, Joachim Wtewael and Dutch Mannerism, was published in 1986. She has taught at Barnard College, Columbia University, Hunter College, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Toledo Museum of Art. She has published numerous articles on Dutch painting and is a founding member and past president of the Historians of Netherlandish Art.

Share: