Venus and Cupid,
oil on canvas, 102 x 172 cm, framed

Literature:
S. Facchinetti/A. Galansino/P. Rumberg (eds.), In the Age of Giorgione, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 12th March – 5th June 2016, exhibition catalogue, London 2016, p. 72-74, fig. 15 (as Giovanni Cariani)

The present painting has been recently published as a work by Giovanni Cariani (see literature). It was possibly executed to celebrate a marriage of the nobility demonstrated by the coat-of-arms with a leopard on a red field, shown hanging prominently from a tree.

The amorous encounter between Venus and Cupid is set within a broad landscape in accordance with the Venetian figurative tradition, inaugurated with the celebrated model by Giorgione, that today hangs in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden, but which at the beginning of the Cinquecento was preserved in Casa Marcello in Venice.

In the present painting the artist created plein air alcove made up of a white drape, two richly embroidered cushions and a heavy green curtain which serves to separate the foreground scene from the surrounding pastoral setting.In the distance there is a cultivated landscape with figures that animate the scene: a shepherd with his flock, a traveller with his mule, a couple that meet near a bridge. Through the artist´s imagination, the landscape is transformed; the colours of the mountains blend with the blues of the sky, and the sun sheds a dusky light.

The amorous bond between Venus and Cupid appears more complex than the simple surroundings. There is clear contrast between the ecstatic and dreamy air of the goddess, and the knowingly cunning appearance of Cupid, who looks out at the viewer for approval, before deliberately striking Venus’ heart with his arrow.

The present work has been compared to Cariani´s artistic productions of the 1530s, among these are the Portrait of an Old Man of Nurenberg in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, of 1536 and the Portrait of a Gentleman of 1537. The stylistic influence of Jacopo Palma il Vecchio is also significant, and to a lesser degree, the works of Pordenone after his Roman sojourn. The impact of Palma il Vecchio´s so-called Venus of Hampton Court can be noted, on account of the form of the female figure.