Minneapolis Institute of Art
Venus and Cupid
Master HB with a Griffin's Head; Probably active in the workshop of Lucas Cranach the ElderLinkedCulture matchlcp-6e23a0501bea
- Date
- c. 1550
- Medium
- Oil on panel (fir)
- Department
- European Art
- Institution
- Minneapolis Institute of Art
- Object ID
- 1281
From the Minneapolis Institute of Art record
The figure of Venus, goddess of love, is based on a print from Albrecht Dürer’s treatise on human proportion (Nuremberg, 1528). But Dürer’s figural ideal is transformed into something wholly original in the hands of the Master HB, a German painter known today only by his initials. HB paints the bodies of Venus and Cupid as though they are constructed of strange, tectonic shapes; their bodies twist and turn in contorted positions in a compressed space in the picture’s foreground. These unnaturally muscled bodies and mannered poses are meant by the artist to demonstrate his unique imagination and skills. Germany, Europe
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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- The John R. Van Derlip Fund
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