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Lorenzo Lotto Italian
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 608
In this startling and playful painting, Cupid devilishly urinates on his mother Venus through a laurel wreath—an act that symbolizes fertility. The provocative tone of the picture speaks to the growing popularity of eroticism in European art at the time, owing in part to the rediscovery of ancient texts. Lotto likely took inspiration from ancient Roman poetry that describes Cupid waking Venus so that she may preside over a wedding. Her crown, veil, and pearl earring are all items commonly worn by brides in sixteenth-century Venice, indicating that this was probably painted to commemorate a marriage. Venus’s distinctive features suggest that it may be a portrait of the bride.
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Fig. 1. Line engraving (from Salomon Reinach, "Répertoire de peintures du moyen age et de la renaissance (1280–1580)," Paris, vol. 4, 1918, p. 652)
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Fig. 2. Plate from Cesare Vecellio, "Habiti antichi et moderni," Venice, 1598
Fig. 3. Plate from Francesco Colonna, "Hypnerotomachia Poliphili," Venice, 1499
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Fig. 4. Before cleaning (from Bernard Berenson, "Lotto," 3rd ed., Milan, 1955, pl. 258)
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Fig. 5. Painting in frame: overall
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Fig. 6. Painting in frame: corner
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Fig. 7. Painting in frame: angled corner
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Fig. 8. Profile drawing of frame. W 6 9/16 in. 16.6 cm (T. Newbery)
Artwork Details
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Title: Venus and Cupid
Artist: Lorenzo Lotto (Italian, Venice ca. 1480–1556 Loreto)
Date: 1520s
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 36 3/8 x 43 7/8 in. (92.4 x 111.4 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchase, Mrs. Charles Wrightsman Gift, in honor of Marietta Tree, 1986
Accession Number: 1986.138
Learn more about this artwork
"Where did Praxiteles see me naked?" Depictions of Venus in Sixteenth-Century Italian Painting
Curator Keith Christiansen explores a provocative new juxtaposition of four paintings by Veronese, Titian, and Lotto, all of which depict Venus, the goddess of love.
La Serenissima: Venetian Glory in The Met's Galleries
Curator Andrea Bayer surveys a selection of The Met's Venetian paintings ahead of a series of talks she will give in February, Celebrating La Serenissima.
Connections: Olympians
Associate publisher Gwen Roginsky and her teenage daughter Ana Sofia Meneses relish the drama of the dysfunctional family that is the Olympians.
Connections: Date Night
Editorial assistant Nadja Hansen expounds on why the Met is a great place for a date.
Timeline of Art History
Essay
Art and Love in the Italian Renaissance
Essay
Botanical Imagery in European Painting
Essay
Courtship and Betrothal in the Italian Renaissance
Essay
Northern Italian Renaissance Painting
Essay
Paintings of Love and Marriage in the Italian Renaissance
Essay
Sixteenth-Century Painting in Venice and the Veneto
Chronology
Venice and Northern Italy, 1400-1600 A.D.
Chronology
Venice and Northern Italy, 1400-1600 A.D.
Museum Publications
The Wrightsman Pictures
Recent Acquisitions: A Selection, 1986–1987
Philippe de Montebello and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1977–2008
One Met. Many Worlds.
"North of the Apennines: Sixteenth-Century Italian Painting in Venice and the Veneto": The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 63, no. 1 (Summer, 2005)
"North of the Apennines: Sixteenth-Century Italian Painting in Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna": The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 60, no. 4 (Spring, 2003)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Spanish)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Russian)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Portuguese)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Korean)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Japanese)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Italian)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (German)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (French)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Chinese)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Arabic)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide
Metropolitan Jewelry
Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born before 1865: A Summary Catalogue
Art and Love in Renaissance Italy
Art = Discovering Infinite Connections in Art History
Related Artworks
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- By Lorenzo Lotto
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- Provenance Research Project
- Canvas
- Oil paint
- Paintings
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- From A.D. 1400–1600
Raising of Lazarus
1480–1556
Head of a Bearded Man
Lorenzo Lotto (Italian, Venice ca. 1480–1556 Loreto)
1516–17
Brother Gregorio Belo of Vicenza
Lorenzo Lotto (Italian, Venice ca. 1480–1556 Loreto)
1547
The Lamentation
Ludovico Carracci (Italian, Bologna 1555–1619 Bologna)
ca. 1582
Bartolomeo Bonghi (died 1584)
Giovanni Battista Moroni (Italian, Albino, no later than 1524–1578 Albino)
shortly after 1553
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