Venus and Adonis

The porcelain group depicting Venus and Adonis probably reprises a composition by Massimiliano Soldani Benzi, to be identified in the smaller of the two versions mentioned in the 18^th century Inventory of Models of the Doccia factory. It is known that in 1744 Marquis Carlo Ginori, founder in 1737 of the factory with his name, purchased from Soldani’s son Ferdinando, the plaster moulds used in his father’s workshop for the creation of small bronzes. The composition presented here may have arrived at Doccia on that occasion.

The scene depicts a semi-nude Venus next to her beloved Adonis mortally wounded by a boar. Lying on the ground on a rocky base with his left leg bleeding, the hunter is accompanied by a dog, which tries to console him, and a weeping Cupid.

In addition to porcelain reproductions of large statues, the Doccia factory produced numerous narrative groups, both mythological and religious, typical of late Baroque Florentine sculpture. Many examples are, in fact, mainly derived from compositions designed to be cast in bronze and intended for the decoration of tables and consoles.