Venus and Cupid  1530

by Lorenzo Lotto

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 g...
Credit: 
Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art