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Here is the goddess of love and her son. Here, the mother has removed Venus' quiver of arrows, which he uses to wound lovers. I liked the intimacy of mother and child. In Greek mythology, Cupid was known as Eros. Who is Cupid's father? Most vote for Mars, who was the lover of Venus, but there is another rumor that Mercury is responsible. He was the one who educated Amor (Cupid).
Cupid's duties as a young child were to bring love to people who are in desperate need of a partner. However, Cupid, mischievous as he was, often found himself toying with innocent people's emotions. He realized he had this great power of inflicting uncontrollable love on people and the power got to his head. Cupid would sometimes shoot his arrows into 2 complete opposites, and watch the results for his own pleasure. Cupid was gaining a reputation as being a mischievous little pervert. He would constantly flirt with the girls in town and toy with their emotions.
As Cupid grew older, his powers became stronger, and the people began to respect Cupid's abilities and worship him more. Cupid quickly gained a large cult following, and was eventually worshipped as much (if not, more) as his mother, Venus. Venus wasn't too thrilled about this, as she was very content with having most of the attention due to her extreme beauty. She began feeling jealous, but it wasn't until a mortal woman named Psyche came into the picture that things really turned ugly.
Venus was so overcome with rage and jealousy between her son being worshipped so devoutly because he abused his powers and now this new little beauty queen named Psyche trying to steal her spotlight. Venus wanted this to end immediately, so she ordered Cupid to abuse his powers once again and find Psyche and make her fall in love with the most vile, disgusting creature around. Cupid naturally was pleased to do this chore for his mother, as it will feed his urge to toy with others' emotions. So he went out and began searching for Psyche.
Cupid eventually found Psyche, while she was sleeping in her dark room. Cupid crept up on her and was preparing to shoot her with one of his arrows and bring the most disgusting creature he could find to her, when he stopped. After catching a glimpse of Psyche in a shimmer of light, he was so overcome by her immense beauty that he instantly fell in love with her himself. He was taken back, and struck with awe. He stood there with his bow and arrow in hand, just staring at her in a trance-like state. He just couldn't leave the room, but eventually Psyche heard him making some noise and woke up.
Cupid told Psyche that he was in love with her and started visiting her every night, but he told her that she wasn't allowed to look at him because he didn't want her to know that he was a God and not a mortal. They sat in the dark room talking and flirting for a few weeks, until Psyche’s curiosity got the best of her. Psyche’s older sisters were constantly badgering her about how the guy she is falling in love with is probably just some ugly old monster who didn't want to be seen. She wound up trying to sneak a peak at Cupid's appearance despite his orders, and angered Cupid. He knew he couldn't trust her if she couldn't even obey one simple command. Cupid instantly left Psyche's room as soon as he noticed what she was trying to do, and never looked back.
Psyche was incredibly distraught that this God who was madly in love with her just ran off and ditched her. She spent the rest of her life chasing after Cupid, looking for him every day, but to no avail. Later in Psyche’s life, she was granted immortality by Jupiter, The God of Gods, so that she would have an infinite amount of time to find her lost love. Psyche eventually found Cupid later in her life, and to make a long story short, she and Cupid wound up staying together and having a daughter they named Hedone (meaning pleasure). By this time in his life, Cupid's powers and responsibilities had surpassed that of his own mother's. Cupid now had control over the dead in Hades and the Gods in Olympus, and of course, a beautiful new wife.
Cupid's story, like I said, has many different variations. The history of Cupid can be traced back to both Roman and Greek mythology. Though most people view Cupid as this adorable and innocent little diapered baby, his story suggests otherwise. Cupid was just like any kid would be if they found out they had those kinds of powers, and he wound up abusing them so much to the point where the people worshipped him out of fear of being toyed with by him.
For saving the Jewish people from the armies of the Assynan general Holofernes, the biblical heroine Judith was viewed as a model of civic virtue in the Renaissance. The beautiful widow cut off the head of the drunken and besotted general after willingly entering his camp. Jan van Hemesseffs interpretation of Judith as a powerful nude stresses her courage and also reflects contemporary ambivalence toward the seductive wiles she used against Holofernes: the dangerous power of women was a recurrent and ironic theme in the art of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance in northern Europe. I found this Judith to be Rubenesque. Rubens' works featured plump or rounded usually in a pleasing or attractive way.
I remember saving this painting for two reasons. First, the detail in the jewelry is exquisite. Second, on first take I thought it was a man. Did you?
As court painter to the electors of Saxony, Lucas Cranach the Eider developed a simplified portrait style that catered to his patrons' concern with dynastic continuity and princely status. His portraits of princes present a legible, if not always flattering, rendering of his sitters' features and richly patterned costumes. The Saxon princess depicted here married into the Brandenburg branch of the Hohenzollern family, and her descendants became kings of Prussia and then emperors of Germany. A companion portrait of her husband is now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
This scene is particularly fine examples of the decorative style practiced in Antwerp by a group of largely anonymous artists now dubbed Antwerp Mannerists. The paintings originally formed the interior of the wings of a folding triptych with the Adoration of the Magi as its center. This one shows gifts being presented to a ruler on his throne. It was an excuse for the artist to depict exotic costumes, architecture, and luxury goods - the hallmarks ot the Antwerp Mannerist style. Again, here is a scene from well before Christ with "modern" dress. I love the hats - both male and female! I imagine this same painting with either punk rock getups or disco clothes. I wish I could paint ...
By 1616 Marie de' Medici, the mother of 15-year-old Louis X111 of France, was no longer regent for her son, although she still sought to govern the kingdom. In this portrait, Frans Pourbus the Younger, court painter to Louis XIII, used a relatively unassuming three-quarter-length format and a restrained palette based on the queen mother's black mourning costume for her late husband, Henry IV. Nevertheless, her features are distilled into a mask of authority set off by the rich gold hanging behind her. She seems to be holding a fan in her hand, and check out the see-thru nature of her collar.
Scenes of merrymakers were a favored subject for 17th-century Dutch painters, with drunken or slovenly behavior frequently depicted as a warning to the viewer. This is either a marriage or a betrothal. Check out the precious drinking vessels! I just liked the progression of black, gray, and silver - look how the silver clothing shines.
I found the detail in the hands and the brow astonishing - almost as if taken by a camera. I don't think the upper forearm looks real, though.
Despite its horrific subject matter, this unfinished work displays the graceful movement, delicate colors, and transparent paint application of Reni's late style. It represents an episode from the New Testament that had long been popular in Italian art. Having pleased her step- father, Herod, with her dancing, the seductive Salome receives the head of Saint John the Baptist as her reward. The combination of religiosity, violence, and eroticism appealed to the morbid aspects of 17th-century sensibility. Moral of the story: piss off women at your own peril!
I like how she just grabs the head, she doesn't make a "yucky" face even! Neither does anyone else. Ho hum - another decapitated saint!