Mars and Venus

In this tabletop bronze sculpture, Venus, the nude goddess of love, and Mars, the god of war, tenderly embrace in a union of opposites. Although Hans Mont composed the statue with a dominant view of Venus from the front and Mars from the side, the complex entwining of the figures encourages the viewer to walk around them. Mont reveals the characters' personalities through the shapes of their bodies. Venus curves her elegant long limbs in an unfinished spiral around the more rectilinear posture of the muscular god of war. As is characteristic of Mannerism, naturalism is sacrificed for elegance of composition: Venus's forearms and wrists bend illogically as she wraps her long arms around Mars. While the figures' bodies express their emotional intimacy, their faces remain surprisingly impassive. The sculptor's choice of theme, the small-scale format, and the artist's use of bronze show the interest of artists and patrons in reviving the culture and art of classical antiquity, beginning in the 1400s.