2. This little winged spends most of his time fluttering around and causing trouble with his love-inducing golden arrows ...

4. The story of Cupid, Eros, has inspired and fascinated artists for centuries ...

5. The History of Cupid
in paintings

7. beginning, of course, with Eros …

8. Pompeian Eros, an infant with wings

9. Eros: “I get in trouble for messing with some people's love lives …”
…
Eros brought by Peitho (Persuasion) to Venus,
as Anteros laughs at his being punished for having chosen the wrong target
Venus and the Punishment of Cupid. As the mischievous god of erotic love and lust,
there are several myths in which Cupid gets into trouble, thus plenty of reasons
for his mother to need to admonish or punish him.
Pompeian, Peintre pompéien
Eros punitoPunishment of Eros
Châtiment d'Eros
25 BC, 25 av. J.-C.
Naples National Archaeological Museum, Naples

11. Medieval Eros, became widely known as Cupid

12. An infant with spectacular wings holding an arrow in his hand ...
The image we know of him and that we like, that of a naughty, chubby child.
He will most often be blindfolded, but the meaning given to this blindfold has never
ceased to fuel debate.
"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind."
Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;
Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste.
And therefore is Love said to be a child
Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.
As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,
So the boy Love is perjured everywhere.
William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Piero della Francesca
Cupid Blindfolded
L'Amour aveugle
1452-66
San Francesco, Arezzo

15. Cupid of the Renaissance, as a toddler and even a baby, in a Landscape, Complaining to Venus

16. The divine spring garden ...
at the top
Cupid blindfolded, he shoots his arrows of love.
(Cupid's arrow is aimed at the middle Grace - Chastity;
the impact of love on chastity, leading to a marriage, features in many interpretations.)
Sandro Botticelli
Primavera (Spring), detail
Le Printemps, détail
1482
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

20. Galatea with her gay companions ...
Galatea, the sea-nymph, on a dolphin-drawn chariot,
sea-nymphs and Tritons - fantastic creatures, half man and half fish
and
the small boys with Cupid's bows and arrows who aim at the heart of the nymph
(During the Italian Renaissance, many artists began to include several Cupids
in a single painting.
Known initially as amorini, these figures eventually evolved into putti,
cherubic children found in many mythological and even biblical scenes of the period.)
Raphael, Raphaël
The Triumph of Galatea
Le Triomphe de Galatée
1513
Villa Farnesina, Rome

23. Cupid: Oh ... I look totally creepy in this painting …
The remnant of a possibly mythological (nude) depiction – perhaps Venus,
the goddess of love.
The god of love Cupid, somewhat sinister looking with colorful iridescent plumage,
swings its arrow of love with such violence that the tip bursts into flames
with the other hand he has grasped a fur cloak, apparently from a female figure;
whether the woman is a naked Venus is impossible to say.
However, there is some evidence that it must have been an erotically provocative,
perhaps even daring, depiction.
And one will be allowed to assume that prudery was responsible for the destruction
of the picture and for the salvation of this morally harmless remnant.
Hans Baldung Grien
Cupid with the Flaming Arrow
Cupidon avec la flèche enflammée
1530
Augustinermuseum, Fribourg-en-Brisgau

27. Eros Stealing Honey:
"My mom was like: Why are you stealing that honeycomb?"
"And I was like: Why are you only wearing a hat?"
…
Two classical gods of love, standing naked amid a verdant landscape under a blue sky …
Venus is wearing only a hat of red and gold cloth decorated with a wide circle of ostrich
plumes, and two necklaces,
Cupid winged holding a honeycomb, he is being assailed by honeybees
(The work has been interpreted as an allegory of the pleasure and pains of love,
and possibly also a warning of the risks of venereal disease.)
Lucas Cranach the Elder, Lucas Cranach l'Ancien
Cupid complaining to Venus
Cupidon se plaignant à Vénus
1525
National Gallery, London

30. A whole convention of winged infants
but
only one, at the lower right corner,
is armed with his bow and arrow, thus a true Cupid.
The others, who seem to be up to all sorts of mischief, are more properly
amorini, (singular amorino), Cupid’s helpers.
(They’re also termed putto (singular) and putti (plural), but however
cherubic they might appear, they remain distinct from cherubim,
which are sacred creatures derived from the Old Testament of the Bible,
and attend Christian saints, and others.)
Titian, Titien
The Worship of Venus
L'Offrande à Vénus ou La Fête des Amours
1518-1519
Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

33. Cupid and His Mother …
Allegory of Lust …
the real Cupid kissing his mother Venus in a worryingly erotic way,
with a putto watching, and Father Time behind.
Angelo Bronzino
An Allegory with Venus and Cupid
Allégorie du triomphe de Vénus
1545
The National Gallery, London

36. An argument between Apollo and Cupid …
Apollo - overconfident after having killed the python with arrows - mocks
the little archer.
Cupid obtains his revenge and proves his superior power by enflaming the god to
love with a shot from his bow.
(Wanted for harassment and assault of Apollo: Subject is accused of shooting
a golden arrow (love) into Apollo's heart and a leaden arrow (indifference)
into the nymph Daphne's heart. Apollo fell madly in love with Daphne,
and Daphne wanted nothing to do with Apollo …)
Il Bergamasco
Apollo and Cupid
Apollon et Cupidon
1560
Loggia di Apollo, Villa Pallavicino delle Peschiere, Genoa

38. Baroque Cupid, playful, emphasizing his youth and downplaying his role and divine power

39. It was, perhaps inevitably ...
Caravaggio who painted the most shocking Cupid of the modern era:
a homoerotic interpretation of the old saying ‘love conquers all’, or Amor Vincit Omnia.
In accordance with Virgil’s words: “Omnia vincit amor” (Love Conquers All, Eclogae 10.69),
the youthful God of earthly love, a smiling victor, triumphs over science, art, power and
fame.
The playfully precarious, provocative, importunate pose.
Earthly Love delights in deriding the highest moral and intellectual values of humanity,
along with our loftiest aspirations.
Caravaggio, Le Caravage
Amor Victorious
L'Amour victorieux
1601
Gemäldegalerie Staatlichen Museen, Berlin

42. Caravaggio’s patron’s brother was a Cardinal, and was shocked
by Caravaggio’s work and his brother’s apparent delight in it.
The Cardinal commissioned Giovanni Baglione to paint a response ...
Divine Love interrupts a tryst between Cupid and the Devil,
who turns toward the viewer in anguished surprise revealing Caravaggio's likeness.
Giovanni Baglione
Sacred and Profane Love
L’Amour divin et l’Amour profane
1602
Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Rome

46. Tempus edax rerum
Time, devourer of everything
Ovid, Metamorphoses 15.234
…
an old man covered with dark blue robe and hourglass on the ground
and
their “opponent” Cupid
Pierre Mignard
Time Clipping Cupid’s Wings
Le Temps rognant les ailes de Cupidon
1694
Denver Art Museum, Denver

48. Cupid trapped in the destructive influence of Time,
he doesn’t seem afraid,
inner power is lighting from his eyes,
knowing that Love that he is symbolizing cannot be harmed ...
Love like an eternal thing, mover of every human being,
no matter towards whom or what we feel it.
Pierre Mignard
Time Clipping Cupid’s Wings
Le Temps rognant les ailes de Cupidon
1694
Denver Art Museum, Denver

51. Rococo Cupid, in pastel colors

52. A timeless theme of sensuous seduction ...
cupids,
doves,
overt theatricality, voluptuous flesh,
an asymmetrical unfurling of luxurious fabric,
flowers, pearls
(An painting for Madame de Pompadour, the powerful, mistress of Louis XV.
and Boucher’s most significant patron)
François Boucher
The Toilette of Venus
La Toilette de Vénus
1751
Metropolitan Museum of Art

55. Once painting became Rococo,
Cupids were to be found on almost every canvas.
the Cupid from Boucher's workshop:
gone are his large and colorful wings,
leaving remnants with which even a God would find hard to get airborne.
François Boucher, workshop, atelier
Cupid Disarmed
Cupidon Désarmé
1751
Private collection

58. Neoclassical, French Academic Cupid
Post-Impressionist Cupid of Cézanne
Surrealist Cupid of Dalí

59. Gathered to witness Venus' arrival
nymphs, centaurs,
fifteen putti
and
Academic Cupid and his lover Psyche
William-Adolphe Bouguereau
Naissance de Vénus
The Birth of Venus
1879
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

62. "… this mischievous little god "
…
an idyllic, Arcadian landscape
and
a naked young woman sitting, arms outstretched, pushing a winged boy
but ...
if he is Eros or Cupid, the god of love, holding an arrow to pierce her !
(The title suggests that the young woman is trying to defend herself,
yet she smiles and struggles unconvincingly against the mischievous little god.)
William-Adolphe Bouguereau
Jeune fille se défendant contre Éros
A Young Girl Defending Herself against Eros
1880
Getty Center, J. Paul Getty Trust , Los Angeles

65. In Cézanne's studio ...
if it seems only a matter of time
and
the Baroque cherub in plaster, he chubbily, strides along,
assured of himself like a flâneur passing through the streets of Paris.
Paul Cézanne
Nature morte avec Cupidon en plâtre
Still life with Cherub in plaster
1895
Courtauld Institute of Art, London

67. The tormented rocks of the northern coast of Catalonia ...
Venus, sitting on a reef
and
four cupids playing
In the painting are visible the influences
of Picasso’s contemporary works, the face of the putto
on the right has the unmistakable features of the figures
of the master of Malaga.
Salvador Dali
Venus y Cupidos
Vénus avec Cupidons
Venus with Cupids
1925
Private collection

70. o.esqsegues@gmail.com
The History of Cupid in paintings
L'histoire de Cupidon dans la peinture
images and text credit www.
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71. Whether you like him chubby and diapered, or slender and nude, whether you call him Cupid or Eros or Amor,
let’s celebrate this bringer of love and affection by showing those close to us we love them.