The canvas belongs to a group of four (Ratto d'Europa, Venere e Adone, Io baciata da Giove, Psiche vagheggiata da un satiro) and tells the well-known and tragic love between Venus and the handsome, young Adonis. In the painting Patania, who was used to adopting the language of academic classicism and 17th-century Realism, displays an elegant Classicism.