Two subjects, Venus Concordia and Venus Discordia, appear in the Story of Troy scheme as predella panels flanking The Feast of Peleus (cat. no. 51). The two designs in pencil begun in 1871 fall into the relatively rare category of carefully finished presentation drawings, comparable in detail and execution with the Saint George series made six years ear- lier (cat. nos. 32, 35, 36). According to his own record of works, Burne-Jones began both these large paintings in 1872, concentrating on Venus Discordia in the following year. With such a mass of work soon to follow, however, including the Briar Rose and Perseus series, little serious further work can have been undertaken. Only in the 1890s was he able to return to some of the larger canvases begun so enthusiastically in this extraordinary period of fertile invention. That there is no significant change in composition to Venus Discordia from the drawing of 1871 may suggest that most of what we see is work of 1873; it would have been out of charac- ter for Burne-Jones to resist making improvements to concepts he might have considered immature. The drawing represents the violent consequences of baser human passions, represent- ed by the four Vices (Anger, Envy, Suspicion, and Strife). The struggling male nudes carry clear echoes of the kind of early Italian Renaissance art in which Burne-Jones was totally absorbed at this date. The background frieze of figures is rem- iniscent of the celebrated engraving Battle of the Nudes (ca. 1465), by Antonio Pollaiuolo. There is a separate pencil drawing of the figure of Venus, almost identical in pose but with her head cupped in her left hand. 1 1. Christie's, November 13, 1992, lot 102
No actual work on this painting can be detected as by that of Sir Edward Burne-Jones, although he may have added white highlights, as T M Rooke has stated he did to all studio oils. The finest work on this unfinished oil looks most like the hand of T M Rooke.
Not signed Detailed finished drawings of the whole composition (Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester), like those for the St George series of the mid-1860s, were made for an assistant to transfer the design onto canvas. The features of Venus are akin to those of Maria Zambaco.