Hephaestus1.0131_Thorvaldsen

Thorvaldsen, Vulcan (Hephaestus), Venus, and Mars

Thorvaldsen sculpted several dozens of such relief panels as this. Reminiscent of classical Greek frieze-reliefs, Thorvaldsen's panels were very popular in early 19th-century Europe.

The artist captures here the irony in the cuckolding of Hephaestus, told as by Homer's bard in Odyssey 8 and elsewhere since the start of Western literature. This, though, is Thorvaldsen's telling: Is Hephestus focusing too much on the work at hand? Even as he works on an erotic arrow, he points it straight at the heart of his wife; but, she is turned away to a more interesting paramour. The "red hot" (Thorvaldsensmuseum) arrow in Hephaestus' focus is much less efficacious than the one Ares handles, given by Eros himself. In the center of the vignette, Aphrodite seductively cools her husband's handiwork and turns her attentive gaze at Ares. This scene playing out at Hephaestus' forge is both mundane and divine, both comic and tragic; but, it is also overrun with erotic imagery.