Venus and Cupid

Both of the figures in Marcantonio Raimondi’s Venus and Cupid are nude. Yet the playful, loving rapport between mother and son mark this print as not so dissimilar from Marcantonio’s depictions of the Madonna and Child. The artist’s isolated treatment of the mythological pair in this shadowy niche suggests that they could also be meant to be sculptures. That conceit was often used in black-and-white grisaille paintings on the back of altar wings for pared-down New Testament scenes such as the Annunciation.