1123. VENUS, ADONIS, AND MYRRHA.
School of Giorgione (Venetian: 16th century). See 269.
A picture of the golden age, entirely in the Giorgionesque spirit, and often attributed to Giorgione himself[214]—a vision of a land bathed in perpetual light and sparkling with golden sunshine. The legendary subject which forms the theme of this characteristic pastoral is the story of Myrrha, which may be read in Dryden's translations from Ovid's Metamorphoses. The principal group is Venus and her favourite Adonis (see under 34). He was the son of Myrrha, whose legend is the subject of several small groups. On the right is a woman fleeing from a man who pursues her, sword in hand; these represent Myrrha and her father Cinyras. Farther on the woman is on her knees; here Myrrha is praying to the gods to transform her—
... Since my life the living will profane
And since my death the happy dead will stain,
Some other form to wretched Myrrha give,
Nor let her wholly die, nor wholly live.
A third group shows the answer to her prayer: she is transferred into the myrrh tree, whose "precious drops her name retain," while the wood-nymphs receive her new-born babe, Adonis. In the background on the left is represented the death of Adonis; Venus is lamenting over his body and changing his blood into the anemone. The group in the clouds may represent Cupid accidentally wounding his mother.