What is the subject matter and some of the allegorical elements in Bronzino's Allegory of Venus and Cupid?. In your answer refer to the interpretation of the painting found in the Closer Look section of MyArtsLab

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The painting treats of the subject of Luxuria (sensual indulgence), its exposure by Chronos (time) and its loss by oblivion. The painting was a gift of Cosimo de'Medici to the King of France, Francis I, a connoisseur of erotic paintings. Cosimo had the painter Bronzino include numerous symbolic and allegorical elements which would require interpretative unraveling.

In the left background of the painting, Oblivion is depicted as a mask like empty shell which is cut off from behind the ears. Beneath Oblivion, is a figure portraying Pain or perhaps the "French disease" Syphilis. In the upper right, Chronus or time, with a hourglass on his back, draws a blue cloth behind the principle figures of the painting Venus and Cupid, drawing attention to their unseemly embrace. Giuoco, Playfulness is about to throw rose petals over the principle pair. Behind Giuoco, is the figure of Pleasure or Fraud who is extending a honeycomb to the couple but whose body is that of a dragon. Venus holds in her hand the famous golden apple from the judgment of Paris. Finally, Deceit, in the lower right foreground, is represented by a double mask.