The famous god of healing is depicted here in Poynter’s 1880 painting ‘A Visit to Aesculapius’ as examining the injured Venus. She is accompanied by the Graces while the woman drawing water is thought to be Hygieia.
The painting is based on a poem by Thomas Watson and so we have layers of reception here as Watson used the Latin names of gods though the origin of these divinities is quite Greek!
