Venus interceding for Aeneas

Louis Chéron c. 1695

oil on plaster, ceiling of the First State Room

7.31 x 7.67 m

The subject, from Virgil's Aeneid, book 1, lines 216-93, was worked up in a preliminary sketch which differs substantially from the ceiling as executed (Croft Murray, 5(1)). In the sketch the figures representing the Winds support clouds in the foreground rather than in the far right on the ceiling. On the finished ceiling, the mythological figures are: above from left to right: Ceres, Proserpine, Mercury and Iris; in the centre: Neptune, Pluto, Jupiter and Juno with Venus and Cupid before them accompanied by the Three Graces and Hymen. The Elements are represented by Water and the Winds (lower right). Hercules, Pan, Bacchus and Mars are grouped to the lower left. The dominant note is provided by Jupiter who is draped in red.

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