Venus and Cupid with a Satyr

Painting by Antonio da Correggio

Venus and Cupid with a Satyr

Artist	Antonio da Correggio
Year	c. 1528
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	188.5 cm × 125.5 cm (74.2 in × 49.4 in)
Location	Musée du Louvre

Venus and Cupid with a Satyr (around 1524-1527) is a painting by the Italian High Renaissance artist Antonio da Correggio. It is now in the Musée du Louvre in Paris.^[1]

Background

This painting was in the 16th century in the private collection of count Nicholas Maffei. It is very likely that one of the members of the Maffei family has commissioned two paintings that they then arrived in the 17th century in the collection of the Gonzaga family, with whom the Maffei were relatives. In fact, the son of count Nicholas Maffei, count Frederick Maffei, married Isabel, daughter of Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga.

Description

The work depicts Venus sleeping with her son Eros. Behind them, a satyr is caught while discovering the goddess. The picture is often also seen as portraying Jupiter and Antiope as, according to mythology and Ovid, Jupiter had turned himself into a satyr to rape the nymph.

The painting was probably connected to Correggio's Venus with Mercury and Cupid (The School of Love), now in the National Gallery of London. It, or a copy of it, can be seen in the 1628 painting of the gallery of Cornelis van der Geest, by Willem van Haecht.

The Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest, by Haecht, shows this painting on the right wall.

References

^ "Vénus, Satyre et l'Amour endormi - Louvre Collections" [Venus, Satyr and Sleeping Cupid]. Louvre. 2021-05-21. Archived from the original on 2023-12-15. Retrieved 2023-12-15.

External links

Base Joconde: Venus, Satyre et Cupidon; dit à tort Le Sommeil d'Antiope ou Jupiter et Antiope, French Ministry of Culture. (in French)

Antonio da Correggio

Madonnas

Madonna and Child with Saints Francis and Quirinus (c. 1505)
Barrymore Madonna (1508–1510)
Holy Family with Saints Elizabeth and John the Baptist (Pavia, c. 1510; attributed)
Madonna and Child with Saints Elizabeth and John the Baptist (1510)
Holy Family with Saints Elizabeth and John the Baptist (Mantua, 1511)
Madonna and Child with the Infant John the Baptist (1513–1514)
Madonna and Child with St Francis (1514–1515)
The Holy Family with Saint Jerome (c. 1515)
Madonna and Child with Two Musician Angels (1515–16)
La Zingarella (1516–17)
Campori Madonna (1517–18)
Bolognini Madonna (1514–1519)
Albinea Madonna (1517–1519)
Madonna and Child with the Infant John the Baptist (Madrid, Orléans) (1518)
Casalmaggiore Madonna (c. 1522)
Madonna of the Stairs (c. 1522–23)
San Sebastiano Madonna (1524)
Nursing Madonna with an Angel (c. 1524)
Madonna of the Basket (1525)
Adoration of the Christ Child (1526)
Madonna della Scodella (1528)
Madonna of St. Jerome (1528)
Madonna and Child with St. George (1530)

Other religious paintings

Judith and Her Maidservant (1510)
Four Saints (1514)
David Before the Ark of the Covenant (c. 1515)
Adoration of the Magi (1515–1518)
Rest on the Flight into Egypt with Saint Francis (1520)
Head of Christ (1521)
Agony in the Garden (1524)
Noli me tangere (1524)
Lamentation (1524)
Martyrdom of Four Saints (1524)
Ecce Homo (c. 1526)
Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine :
- Washington c. 1510)
- (Detroit c. 1512)
- (Naples c. 1520)
- (Paris c. 1527
Saint Joseph and a Devotee (1529)
Nativity (1529–1530)
Saint Catherine Reading (c. 1530)
Magdalen in the Desert (Mary Magdalene Reading)