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| Venus and Cupid |
Artist:Lorenzo Lotto (Italian, Venice ca. 1480–1556 Loreto)
Date:1520s
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:36 3/8 x 43 7/8 in. (92.4 x 111.4 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Purchase, Mrs. Charles Wrightsman Gift, in honor of Marietta Tree, 1986
Lotto, whose unusual genius makes him one of the most fascinating of all Venetian painters, depicts Venus and her son Cupid in a bower, a subject inspired by ancient marriage poems. He probably painted it to celebrate the wedding of a cultivated couple in Venice or Bergamo, and Venus’s features may be taken from the bride’s. The beautifully observed details relate to the goddess and marriage. The ivy is symbolic of fidelity, the bride wore a myrtle wreath, and Cupid peeing is a lighthearted augury of fertility.
Provenance
Granet collection, Paris (in 1912); private collection, Switzerland (until 1986); [Adrian Ward-Jackson, New York, 1986; sold to MMA]
Copyright Image
https://images.metmuseum.org
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