Adonis (A53)

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Adonis (A53), 1887, Executed by August Saabye after Thorvaldsen’s original plaster model 1808, Marble, height: 186 cm. Thorvaldsen Museum (Copenhagen, Denmark). Made with ReMake and ReCap Pro from AutoDesk. Adonis stands out as the most attractive and coveted young man in Greek mythology, but his birth was marred by scandal - he was born to a woman named Myrrha, who had engaged in an illicit affair with her father. As punishment, Myrrha was transformed into a tree – the myrrh tree. And when the appointed time arrived, the bark of the tree burst open and Adonis came into the world. In effect, Adonis was condemned from the start, and he met his demise at a relatively young age when he was killed by a wild boar during a hunting trip. We can see the tree on which he leans for support and the dead hare as references to his birth and death respectively. For further updates, please consider following me on Twitter at @GeoffreyMarchal.