Object Image

Cupid with the Wheel of Time

Cupid labors against a rolling wheel, apparently trying to stop its momentum. The space around him is energized by a wind that blows his drapery. The scene is made somber by the dark, cloudy background and the skull hanging from a tree trunk.

This painting is unique among works by Titian. The only other context in which he used monochrome was to imitate marble sculpture within details of larger paintings in full color. The present work, by contrast, is executed entirely in monochrome and with a much more fluid technique, in which the rapid handling of the brush is conspicuously evident.

This work may have originally functioned as the cover, or timpano, to a portrait. Such complements to portr...

c. 1515/1520
Oil on canvas
65.9 x 55.3cm
1939.1.213
Image and text © National Gallery of Art, 2020

Where you'll find this

National Gallery of Art
Permanent collection