Venus and Mars 1628

Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem painted Venus and Mars on panel, but we don't know exactly when. The first thing to notice is the artist's technique. Look closely, and you can see how Haarlem built up the painting, layer by layer. The sensuous skin tones are achieved through glazing, applying thin layers of paint to create a luminous effect. The figures, modeled with painstaking care, seem to emerge from the dark background. This level of detail wasn't just about technical skill. It was about value. Haarlem was celebrated in his own time, and paintings like this would have been highly prized, reflecting the wealth and status of their owners. The labor-intensive process of oil painting itself, with its demand for rare pigments and skilled craftsmanship, added to the artwork's inherent worth. It is easy to overlook such paintings today. But by recognizing the material and the amount of work that went into it, we can appreciate its full significance, and challenge the traditional divide between art and craft.