Almost in all his works devoted to love and sensual pleasures, Boucher reduces the narrative element to a minimum, allowing the viewer to simply enjoy the pink nakedness of the nymphs and porcelain faces of the cowherd boys. But the picture “Mars and Venus, caught by Vulcan” should be considered an exception to this rule.
It illustrates a whole myth. As the reader remembers, Venus was the wife of Vulcan, lame, but very skillful in the blacksmith’s craft of God. The goddess of love, however, these interesting abilities of the spouse were interested far less than the courageous beauty of Mars, the god of war. And one day she became his mistress. Vexed and offended Vulkan forged the finest, but very strong network, which caught the hapless lovers. For his painting, Boucher chooses the most dramatic moment of this story.
The volcano throws his magic net on his lovers. Venus, still not suspecting anything, sweetly slumbers in the arms of the god of war. And he, scarcely awake, looks with horror at the menacing spouse of Venus. On Mars’s face, despair is written – he is unarmed and therefore can not give a worthy rebuff to the jealous. His shield, helmet and spear artist painted in the foreground of the picture – so that the viewer could understand that he could not reach his “equipment”, even if he really wanted to. Frightened children try to cover their lovers, or hide from Vulcan, and the censer placed at the feet of the bed continues to exude a sweet, sensual and, in the light of a new turn of events, an inappropriate flavor.
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