RAVESTEYN, Dirck de Quade van (active c. 1576-1612) |
Cupid Stung by Bees1600-10Red and black chalk, 198 x 150 mm Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest | ||
This chalk drawing with a moral lesson tells the story of Cupid, the god of love, who ran to his mother Venus, vainly trying to escape a swarm of bees whose honeycomb he had stolen. According to the fable told by the Greek poet Theocritus, in his Idylls, Venus laughs and says: "Are you not just like the bee - so little yet able to inflict such painful wounds?" Ravesteyn borrowed the figure of Cupid along with the beehive behind him from a drawing by Dürer depicting the same theme.
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