Venus playing with two doves

Francesco Hayez painted Venus Playing with Two Doves around 1830, a mythological subject that gave him opportunity for the sensuous rendering of the female nude within the approved vocabulary of classical mythology. Venus — the goddess of love depicted in an intimate moment of playful interaction with the birds associated with her — is rendered with the warm, golden tonality and fluid figure modeling of Hayez's mature style. The painting demonstrates his ability to move between the politically engaged historical subjects of his Risorgimento paintings and the purely aesthetic pleasures of classical mythology and the female nude.

Hayez renders Venus with luminous, pearly flesh tones and warm, Venetian-influenced coloring. The careful modeling of the nude figure and the playful composition with the doves demonstrate his mastery of the sensual classical tradition.