PONTORMO, Jacopo
(b. 1494, Pontormo, d. 1557, Firenze)

Venus and Cupid

1532-34
Oil on wood, 128 x 197 cm
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Venus turns her massive body into the picture plane, confronting the viewer with it and with the incestuous kiss she gives her young son - a juxtaposition recalling more conventional allegories of Charity. Her coolly classical face resembles the second of the two masks, symbols of the misleading nature of dreams.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.