#marsdeity

In this tabletop bronze sculpture, Venus, the goddess of love, and Mars, the god of war, tenderly embrace in a union of opposites. Although Hans Mont composed the statue with a dominant view of Venus from the front and Mars from the side, the complex entwining of the figures encourages the viewer to walk around them. Mont reveals the characters’ personalities through the shapes of their bodies. Venus curves her elegant long limbs in an unfinished spiral around the more rectilinear posture of the muscular god of war. As is characteristic of Mannerism, naturalism is sacrificed for elegance of composition: Venus’s forearms and wrists bend illogically as she wraps her long arms around Mars. While the figures’ bodies express their emotional intimacy, their faces remain surprisingly impassive. The sculptor’s choice of theme, the small-scale format, and the artist’s use of bronze show the interest of artists and patrons in reviving the culture and art of classical antiquity, beginning in the 1400s.

Mars is the god of war and so he is given a rather macho appearance. However, we meet him in peaceful surroundings together with his son, the little winged messenger of love, Cupid. So the sculpture confronts the two opposites with each other: big and small, adult and child, war and love. It is as though father and son are in the middle of some game of exchange: Cupid has for fun been allowed to try his strength on Mars’ big, heavy sword, and conversely Mars has taken Cupid’s little love game in his hand. And it is this game that is the centre of attention. Cupid is looking tensely up at his father to see whether even a god of war will be able to recognise the strength of love.