Alessandro Gherardini (Italian, 1655 – 1723)

The Forge of Vulcan

Oil on canvas
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Kendrick Guernsey
AG.1972.15.1

Florentine painter Alessandro Gherardini received many commissions to decorate church interiors as well as private villas. In this painting, he recreated a scene from Virgil’s Aenid. Venus, mother of the hero Aeneas, implored her husband, Vulcan, the god of fire, to make a shield to protect her son. Here, Vulcan’s Cyclopes labor over the molten metal.