Description

The canopied bed and profile view lend an unusual intimacy to this representation of the Roman goddess of love and her son. The doves in the lower-left corner are an emblem of Venus; the discarded quiver with an unbuckled strap indicates that she has disarmed Cupid, who was notorious for wounding lovers with his arrows. The most important and inventive painter in 16th-century Genoa, Luca Cambiaso developed a highly personal style characterized by geometric simplification of anatomy and dramatic, often silvery light.

Provenance

William Patoun (d. 1782), Richmond, Surrey; sold by Patoun to Sir Abraham Hume, Bt. (d. 1838), Wormley Bury, Hertfordshire, by 1782 [see Hume 1824]; by descent to his grandson John Hume Egerton, Viscount Alford (d. 1851), Ashridge Park, Berkhamsted, 1838–51 [according to List of Paintings and Pictures settled by Sir Abraham Hume, Bart. as Heirlooms contained in a Deed of Settlement dated the 27th February, 1834, no. 36, typescript copy, London, National Gallery Library.]; by descent to Adelbert Salusbury Cockayne Cust, fifth Baron Brownlow, 1867–1927; sold Christie’s London, May 4, 1923, no. 109, to Collings for 12 gns [according to an annotated copy of the sale catalogue at Christie’s, London]. Private Collection, Italy [according to Sweet 1943]. William E. Suida, Baden, near Vienna, and New York, by 1927 to 1941 [see Genoa 1956 exhibition, and Suida Manning and Suida 1958]. Sold by A.F. Mondschein, New York, to the Art Institute, 1942.