Venus and Cupid
Theocritus’s Idylls (XIX) and Anacreon’s Odes (XL) tell how the infant Cupid was stung by a bee while stealing honey. Running to his mother, Venus, for comfort he received little sympathy, for, as Venus pointed out, he inflicted far deeper wounds on others with his bow and arrows. The picture’s poor condition makes it difficult to attribute with certainty, but it is evidently an original Venetian composition, related to Titian’s early Giorgionesque phase, c.1510-15.
c.1510 - c.1515
Oil on canvas
110.5 x 138.4cm
P19
Images and text © Wallace Collection, 2017
Where you'll find this
The Wallace Collection
Permanent collection