Otto van Veen
Apollo and Venus
Otto van Veen, 1556-1629 “Apollo and Venus”, circa 1600
Oil on Wood Panels, 49 x 37 in
The painting was given to the Des Moines Women’s Club in 1952 by Louise Coskey from the Collins-Coskery Collection but it had been on loan to the Club in 1922-23. The 1933, ”41 and ’52 Des Moines Women’s Club Art Catalogues state that the painting at one time hung in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
This Old Masters painting of Apollo and Venus is among the most rare and important works of art in Iowa. It was discovered in a forgotten corner of a storage closet in the Hoyt Sherman Place Theater by the new Executive Director Robert Warren. When restored in 2018, its significance was quickly recognized. Dated around 1600, it was painted in Flanders (modern-day Belgium) by Otto van Veen, who was the teacher of Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), one of the greatest painters of European art. The skilled and lightly graceful brushwork of this painting is shared by both the highly accomplished teacher, van Veen, and his student, Rubens.
The subject of this painting is from ancient Greek mythology and depicts two of its most vivid characters: the god Apollo and the goddess Venus. Both were known for their beauty, but also for their encouragement of love and art among humans; both inspired poets and artists for centuries.
The lightly bearded youth who gazes at Venus and gestures towards her painting is the sun god, Apollo. The light that he brings, however, is not just the daylight, but is also the enlightenment of the mind, especially through artistic inspiration. Venus is the goddess of love and beauty, and her cherubic companion is Eros (known also by his name in Roman mythology, Cupid) who can inflame romantic attraction so strongly that reason is overcome. Venus is nude not just to display her physical beauty, but because in classicism, the human body is considered so beautiful in its purest state that no further adornment is necessary; therefore, Venus has cast off her jewelry and placed it behind her on the bench.
Along the lower edge of the painting is a series of still-lifes: a basket of grapes, flowers, a plate of oysters, and a bench containing the painter’s colors and tools. Such popular subjects carried symbolism that most people of the time would have recognized. The grapes are a symbol of fertility, the wilting flowers remind us that youth and beauty are fleeting, and the oysters are both an aphrodisiac (an enhancement of desire) and a symbol of transformation in that an oyster takes a grain of coarse sand and turns it into a beautiful, luminous pearl, much as artists take ordinary experience and lift it into a higher realm.
Both Apollo and Venus are patrons of art. Apollo holds a lyre (to symbolize music and it’s charms) and Venus paints a picture of artistic inspiration — appropriate for Hoyt Sherman Place! Her painting shows the winged horse, Pegasus, flying near the summit of Mount Helicon where, by striking his hoof against the barren mountainside, he has brought forth the fountain of Hippocrene. Now, the sacred water of creativity is flowing, and those who drink from it will find inspiration for art, which informs and elevates humanity.
This painting was conserved by Barry Bauman Conservation in 2017 with funds donated by
Robert Warren and the Hoyt Sherman Place Foundation.
See student reflection video below.