In 1641-1654, the painter created a series of painting on the subject of Venus and Adonis. The series was ordered by Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, the stadtholder of The Hague, for his countryside residence. There were several paintings dedicated to the theme of Venus mourning the death of Adonis. One of those paintings is now part of the Radishchev Museum collection.

The story of love of Venus and Adonis is known from the Metamorphoses, a Latin narrative poem authored by Ovid, a Roman poet. Venus was worshipped as the goddess of beauty, love, desire, and fertility. According to the legend, she was born of sea foam near the Isle of Kythira and then carried to Cyprus by the wind. In myth, everywhere her foot stepped flowers would break into blossom.

In the paining, Willeborts represents the very moment Venus reached her dying paramour as she heard him moan, but it was too late. In Ovid’s narrative, the goddess started “tearing her clothes, and tearing at her hair, as well, and beat at her breasts with fierce hands, complaining to the fates.” The painter showed her holding Adonis’s lifeless body. Next to Venus, little Amor is crying.

Willeborts positioned the figures in a triangle symbolizing harmony and peace of the world. At the same time, their bodies and gestures inside the triangle form angled lines that interfere with the harmony. The contrasting palette of the painting supports the sensation of chaos and tension: the painter used warm and cold shades of red and blue.