The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

Vertically oriented black ink print of Venus, a nude goddess with light skin tone, stepping out of the ribbon-like waves onto a sea-shell, her back to us but turning to her right so we see her face, eyes closed, gathering her wavy hair at the nape of her neck with her left hand. In clouds in the sky are two crowned gods with light skin tones, one brandishing a sword towards the other, reclining.

The Birth of Venus

c. 1516

Marco Dente

(Italian, c. 1486–1527)

after Raphael

(Italian, 1483–1520)
Italy, 16th century
engraving
Sheet: 26.3 x 17.5 cm (10 3/8 x 6 7/8 in.)
Gift of Ralph King 1923.1101
Catalogue raisonné: Bartsch XIV.243.323 ; Le Blanc II.111.17 ; Pass. VI.69.31
Location: Not on view

Description

Marco Dente was one of several printmakers who re-created Raphael’s designs as engravings. Both of Dente’s compositions after Raphael relate to the latter’s frescos in the stufetta, or bathroom, of Cardinal Bernardo Dovizi da Bibbiena’s apartments in the Vatican Palace. A scholar of classical antiquity and a patron of the arts, the Cardinal personally chose these mildly erotic female nudes, a common subject in bathroom decorations, even for members of the clergy. Depicted here is Venus, the goddess of love and fertility. According to the myth of her birth, she was created in sea foam from the castrated genitals of the primeval sky god Uranus. In the clouds, Uranus’s son Saturn, the god of time, prepares to mutilate his father with a curved sword. Meanwhile, Venus steps out of frothy waves onto a seashell.
  • ?–1923
    Ralph King [1855-1926], Cleveland Heights, OH, given to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    December 20, 1923–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Zeitler, Kurt, and Pinakothek der Moderne (Munich, Germany). Den Menschen Vor Augen : KüNstlerische Strategien Seiner Darstellung in Italienischen Zeichnungen 1450-1750. Berlin, München: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2025.
  • Creation, Birth, and Rebirth. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 17, 2024-July 16, 2025).
    Gods and Heroes: Ancient Legends in Renaissance Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26-December 31, 2017).
    Main Gallery Rotation (gallery 117): October 7, 2013 - January 21, 2014.
    Early Italian Engraving: 1460's - 1530's. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 25-October 27, 2002).
    Drawn to the Body: The Human Figure and the Graphic Arts, 1500-1900. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 14-May 23, 1999).
    The Sea. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 23-October 25, 1950).
    Miscellaneous Prints and Drawings from the Museum Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 23-October 23, 1924).
  • {{cite web|title=The Birth of Venus |url=false|author=Marco Dente, Raphael|year=c. 1516|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1923.1101