Venus Healing Aeneas
Merry Joseph Blondel (French, 1781–1853)
c. 1820
View the original$15
Type
Size · in
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Materials & printing
Archival matte paper, 189 g/m² (10.3 mil), sourced from Japan, printed with multicolor water-based inkjet so every brushstroke stays crisp. Framed prints arrive ready to hang in a .75″ ayous-wood frame with an acrylite front. Sized to standard frames by cropping, never stretching — at most about 3% comes off one edge, which isn’t noticeable on most pieces, and we only offer a size when it stays that small.
Shipping & returns
Made to order and delivered in 5–8 business days (2–4 to print, 3–4 in transit). US shipping only for now. Because each print is made for your order, all sales are final — but if it arrives damaged or defective, send us a photo within 14 days and we’ll replace it free. Full policy.
Why is it this affordable?
A thin, flat margin on every piece — just enough to keep the store running. Most of what you pay is the print itself. We only sell sizes that reproduce at full quality, and we don’t mark up the large sizes the way most shops do.
About this work
In this study for a larger painting of a scene from Virgil’s Aeneid, Merry Joseph Blondel depicted the epic poem’s protagonist, Aeneas, wounded and having dragged himself away from the battlefield. Hidden in a divine mist, the goddess Venus—Aeneas’s mother—and the river god Numicus come to his rescue. Numicus holds the hero as Venus administers a healing balm. The following lines from A. S. Kline’s translation of the poem describe the scene:
This Venus brought, her face veiled in dark mist,
this, with its hidden curative powers, she steeped
in river water, poured into a glittering basin, and sprinkled
there healing ambrosial juice and fragrant panacea.
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 27 × 21.5 cm (10 5/8 × 8 1/2 in.)
Museum record · 2 owners
Provenance
- Hippolyte Lebas (died 1867), Paris, by 1867; sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, December 2–4, 1867, lot 93, as Sujet mythologique, to private collection, France.
- Sold, small regional auction, France, artist listed as anonymous, to private collection, by 2010; sold, Artcurial auction at Hôtel Drouot, Paris, February 19, 2010, lot 199, as Venus protégeant le corps d’Hector de la corruption, to Caylus Anticuaios, Madrid; sold to Art Institute of Chicago, 2015.
