Venus and Cupid

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. (Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art)