Art Institute of Chicago
Venus and Cupid
John DeareLinkedCulture matchlcp-6d3039ba79f1
- Date
- 1789
- Medium
- Pen and black ink on cream laid paper
- Culture
- England
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Object ID
- 241061
From the Art Institute of Chicago record
John Deare, one of the finest British sculptors of the late 1700s, was also a superb draftsman. Venus and Cupid is a highly finished study for a relief sculpture of the same subject (now in the Cliffe Castle Museum in Yorkshire). Consistent with his profession, Deare’s drawing technique is characterized by severe linearity, minimal shading, and a frieze-like arrangement of figures, as though the whole were carved from a block of stone. Cupid holds an outsize butterfly, an allusion to his wedding to Psyche. In Neoplatonic philosophy, the butterfly signifies the immortality of the soul. Gazing intensely into Cupid’s eyes, Venus expresses maternal affection while at the same time registering an erotic charge.
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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- The Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Endowment Fund
- Provenance
- Hugh Honour (1927–2016) and John Fleming (1919–2001), Villa Marchìo, Tofori, Tuscany, Italy. Sold by Lowell Libson, Ltd., London, to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2017.
Linked open data
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- Object type
- AAT300033973
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