Art Institute of Chicago

Venus and Cupid

Luca Cambiaso (Italian, 1527–1585)

Date

c. 1570

Medium

Oil on canvas

Culture

Italy

Department

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

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.

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