Lucas Cranach the Elder, Cupid complaining to Venus

Lucas Cranach the Elder, Cupid complaining to Venus, c. 1525, oil on wood, 81.3 x 54.6 cm (The National Gallery, London)

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Dr. Steven Zucker: [0:04] Pleasure often comes with a cost, with a little pain. Lucas Cranach the Elder reminds us of that in his painting, “Cupid Complaining to Venus.”

Dr. Beth Harris: [0:13] We see Cupid, who’s reached for a honeycomb only to be stung by a whole set of bees. He’s looking up at Venus, his mother, in pain as though he’s pleading for her sympathy.

Dr. Zucker: [0:24] She doesn’t seem to be paying attention to him at all, however. Instead, she’s looking out at us as a sultry seducer.

Dr. Harris: [0:31] There’s no denying the eroticism of this painting — of her body, of her look toward us, the way that she positions her legs between that branch. The way that she reaches up toward the apples on the tree, reminding us of Eve and the Garden of Eden.

Dr. Zucker: [0:48] So this is really a bit of a composite. You have on the one hand this reference back to antiquity. You have Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. You have her son Cupid. These are all classical references.

[0:58] In fact, in the top, you have a translation from the Latin, which actually speaks to the relationship between pain and pleasure. Yet we also have this very dramatic image, with this dark forest on the left and fashions that relate to the Saxon court.

Dr. Harris: [1:14] Cranach was court painter to the Electors, the rulers of Saxony.

Dr. Zucker: [1:19] Who actually commissioned this painting.

Dr. Harris: [1:21] The woman here, Venus, although she’s the pagan goddess of love as you said, is wearing the headdress and necklaces of an aristocratic woman at the court in Saxony.

Dr. Zucker: [1:31] It’s a little bit vampy to have this nude woman wear both the jewelry and that wild headdress.

Dr. Harris: [1:39] And be utterly nude otherwise.

Dr. Zucker: [1:40] It is. She is painted so seductively that he really is challenging us with [the] moral issues of our lust.

Dr. Harris: [1:49] Of whether the pleasure is worth the pain.

Dr. Zucker: [1:51] Exactly.

Dr. Harris: [1:52] On the left, we have a German forest with a stag and a doe. On the right, a very deep landscape with a lovely reflection in a river.

Dr. Zucker: [2:03] You can see in that water two swans and the reflection of a house with a red roof. But beyond that is wonderfully fanciful cliffs, and there’s a castle up at the top. There’s a house that’s cantilevered over on the right side.

Dr. Harris: [2:16] And a castle on the river itself.

Dr. Zucker: [2:18] With a beautiful reflection in that still water.

Dr. Harris: [2:21] This is an aristocratic image. This is an image of castles on rivers. It feels German to me in so many ways — the forest, the rivers, the castles.

Dr. Zucker: [2:32] And yet in the foreground, you have this wonderful classicized literary reference. It’s not only sexual, but it’s also really playful. Let’s not forget about the complaining infant.

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Cite this page as: Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris, "Lucas Cranach the Elder, Cupid complaining to Venus," in Smarthistory, December 4, 2015, accessed November 7, 2024, https://smarthistory.org/lucas-cranach-the-elder-cupid-complaining-to-venus/.