“Three Venuses” exemplifies the artist’s earlier practice of dense, detailed and intricate drawings with subtexts of mortality, ideals of beauty and gender norms. Three iconic art historical Venuses emerge from the swirling smoke of the extinguished candle—Titian’s “Venus of Urbino”, Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus” and Cabanel’s “Birth of Venus”—bringing the viewers’ attention to both the longevity of these icons as standards of beauty, but also the fleetingness of said youth and beauty. The extinguished candle is traditionally recognized as symbolic of memento mori—the ancient theory of reflection on one’s own mortality. Two classic themes in art history, beauty and death, are married in this baroque-like drawing, calling the viewers’ attention to the inevitability of death in the face of idealizing beauty.
Framing for this lot generously supplied by Superframe.
