Venus and her Attendants by Hans Zatzka

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The Austrian painter Hans Zatzka is known for painting women in rich environment. His themes varied from mythology to fantasy and sometimes real places. But, his most prolific works represents mythological characters in different sets.

The current painting is about the Greek goddess Venus in lying on a ground surrounded by the ‘attendants’. Here, the attendants are the love-angles as the Venus herself is the goddess of love, merrymaking and prosperity.

The artist has put her in a surrounding which matches her nature, power and her voluptuous effect in general. The little angles are obviously there of their characteristic resemblances with cupids. Though, they don’t have the bows and arrows of love like cupids but these little angles are as charming and create a sense of emotional naivetés and purity close to the emotion of love.

Little symbolism included in the painting is about the cherries. There is a cherry tree in the right side of the painting and all the characters are eating, holding or playing with those little red fruits. In symbolic manner, cherries resemble to fertility, merrymaking and virginity as well – all the sensual elements close to Venus’s nature.

The flowers she has worn on her head and the climber depicted in the picture also seems to be more liek cherry blossoms, another characteristic resemblance to beauty and innocence.

So, the adequacy of painting amazingly and the knowledge and intelligence about inclusion of symbolic elements fitting well in the picture are some of the most appealing aspects of Hans Zatzka’s paintings.