Venus mourning Adonis 

This is Philipp Winterwerb's pencil drawing, "Venus mourning Adonis," now held at the Städel Museum. Here, we see the goddess Venus lamenting the death of Adonis, a scene laden with potent symbolism. Adonis, the beautiful youth, was killed by a wild boar, a beast often associated with untamed nature and tragic fate. Note Venus's gesture of grief, her hand raised to her head, echoing poses of mourning found in countless works across time, from ancient sarcophagi to Renaissance paintings. This gesture transcends cultures, embodying universal sorrow. Consider how the boar, the agent of Adonis’s demise, appears throughout mythology, often representing primal, destructive forces. The motif of the grieving goddess, deeply rooted in our collective psyche, speaks to the eternal themes of love, loss, and the transience of beauty. Like a recurring dream, this scene resurfaces, a testament to the enduring power of myth and the human condition.