In a landscape with trees, in the foreground, there are two figures, a feminine and a masculine one, the latter of which lies dead. Besides him there is a quiver of arrows. Standing still, two dogs watch the scene.
This scene portrays the moment when Venus panics after knowing that Adonis, his young and handsome lover, had been killed by a wild boar. In order to pay him homage, she transforms his corpse into a flower that would be named after him, as it is described in Metamorphoses (10.717-739).