Venus and Cupid
Luca Cambiaso
1565–1575
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 107.5 × 95.7 cm (42 3/8 × 37 5/8 in.); Framed: 138.5 × 126.7 × 8.6 cm (54 1/2 × 49 7/8 × 3 3/8 in.)
- Genre
- oil on canvas
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Styles
Tags
oil paintings (visual works)paintingVenuspaint16th Centurycanvaspillowswomanjewelryoil on canvasoil paint (paint)painting (image making)arrowpearlspainting techniquescupidsItalianmother and childquiverinteriorchildrenoil paintingwoman with childreneuropean painting
About
The canopied bed and profile view lend an unusual intimacy to this representation of the Roman goddess of love and her son. The doves in the lower-left corner are an emblem of Venus; the discarded quiver with an unbuckled strap indicates that she has disarmed Cupid, who was notorious for wounding lovers with his arrows. The most important and inventive painter in 16th-century Genoa, Luca Cambiaso developed a highly personal style characterized by geometric simplification of anatomy and dramatic, often silvery light.
