Venus and Cupid with a Honeycomb

Venus and Cupid with a Honeycomb
Artist	Cranach Lucas also known as Cranach The Elder
Year	c. 1531
Medium	Oil on wooden panel
Subject	Venus, Cupid and the honeycomb
Dimensions	169 cm × 67 cm (67 in × 26 in)
Location	Galleria Borghese, Rome

Venus and Cupid with a Honeycomb is an oil painting by the German artist Lucas Cranach the Elder, one of the masters of the German Renaissance of the 16th century. It was probably executed in 1531, as once suggested by a legible inscription on the tree trunk in the center of the composition, after a meeting with the Greek professor of the University of Wittenberg, Georg Sabinus. Twenty-four versions of this subject, replicated many times by the painter, are known, from the very first series that began in 1509 and to which the painting belongs.

One of its best known versions is Cupid complaining to Venus, dated c. 1526–27 and preserved at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Description and style

In this painting, Lucas Cranach the Elder depicts Venus and her son Cupid.

Venus hair ornament

Against the brown background the bare trunk of a tree stands out, the wrinkled bark is in contrast with the ivory complexion of Venus and her tall, thin, and soft body, who could seem to people of the Mediterranean a charmingly satirical portrait of the Goddess of Love.
The divinity is a portrait of a Saxon courtesan who is completely naked and holds a threadlike drape between her right arm, which rests on the tree on one side, and her right hand on the other. Her drape does not cover her but highlights her sensuality, while her right arm is slightly bent to emphasise the sinuosity of her body.
In contrast to her nudity, she wears an elegant red hat that reflects the Gothic style, and it is embellished by elegant crane feathers, an accessory particularly in vogue at the court of the Dukes of Saxony, where women opted between this singular headdress and a cap embroidered with large pearls to collect their hair, here both; are worn by the Venus, along with a necklace of precious gems and a ribbon on which the letters "W.A.F.I." are embroidered, perhaps a reference to the name of the effigy. She stares at the viewer, smiling softly.

At her feet, the winged infant Cupid looks up at her mother. With a darker complexion, his body is full of chiaroscuro, which highlights the roundness of the child. He has light blue wings with white reflections like the feathers of his mother's hat.

He is holding a honeycomb, possibly taken from a hole towards the bottom of the tree's trunk. Some bees have come out of the comb and landed on his arms and on the tree. Differently from other representations, in this case, Cupid does not cry and does not run away from bees (as, for example, the watercolour artwork made by Dürer shows), his face is sulky, and he seeks consolation from his mother, who looks at him with a mocking expression. She seems to be telling him that he should not be surprised because the pain he is feeling is exactly the same that he inflicts on humans when he shoots his arrows.

The painting date of creation

The painting is set in Arcadia due to the nudity of the characters but also in the early 1500 due to the Northern Renaissance-style hat, hairstyle, and necklace. Actually, it deals with a universal theme and is therefore current for all ages; the moralising explanation is made explicit by the distich. Chelidonio emphasises that the short-lived voluptas is accompanied by pain; the reference is to promiscuity, and it is an allegory of the pleasures and pains of love, as well as a possible warning of the risks of venereal disease, which was a real epidemic among the soldiers of the continent's wars. The denunciation of casual relationships and of the most diffuse diseases, such as syphilis, is evident from the representation made of Venus. The meaning behind this picture is described in the moral couplet of the moralist Chelidonius, situated in the upper right corner.

Execution date

The painting was most likely completed in 1531, as suggested by an inscription that was once visible on the trunk bearing the initials and the date of creation in the centre of the composition. It was later interpreted by Della Pergola in 1959 and Herrmann Fiore in 2010 as being part of a sign that produced a winged snake, legible inscription bearing the initials on the trunk in the centre of the composition.

Mythological background

Greek poet Theocritus' portrait

The depicted characters are Cupid and Venus. Cupid is strictly related to Venus, the goddess of beauty and fertility, who is a source of education and punishment for the Greek god of love. In this painting, it's a woman from the Court of Saxony who takes on the role of Venus: she wears an iconic hat of the time, but the Latin lines on the top right-hand corner transport the figure into the classical world. This painting dates back to the Renaissance, a period in which bees and honey were considered symbols of pleasure, just like the two deities represented in the painting.

The subject of this painting is taken from the Theocritean Idyll XIX, in which the representative of pastoral poetry recounts Cupid being stung by a bee while stealing a honeycomb from the hive. After manifesting his pain with screams and kicks, he flew to his mother Venus and complained to her. She replied that Cupid is like the bee: small but capable of inflicting painful wounds. Venus' answer alludes to Cupid's explosive force, capable of leading human beings to the loss of reason or to destruction. Bee stings correspond to the wounds caused by Cupid's arrows, which make humans victims of a painful desire for love (voluptas). Notwithstanding this, Venus doesn't appear to be affected by the circumstances. In actuality, she is insensitive to her child's suffering. In this painting,Cranach intended to portray the human will to resist temptation rather than maternity in this painting.

The four-line inscription taken from Latin translations of Theocritus is variously attributed to Ercole Strozzi, Philip Melanchthon, or Georg Sabinus. The couplet wants to convey the concept that the sweetness of Venus' pleasures causes inevitable pain. Adornment of the images of Venus with poems in Latin couplets, such as in the painting at the Borghese Gallery, clearly reveals that the artist was committed to divulging the tale from antiquity along with its moral, but also to underscoring in poetic terms the Latin humanistic tradition of addressing the erudite viewer. In the traditional title of the painting, Venus with Cupid Holding the Honeycomb, the "theft" element is missing, while it is instead contained in the Greek "keriokleptes".

Philip Melanchton's portrait by Lucas Cranach the Elder

Ercole Strozzi's engraving

In this painting, along with the other paintings by Cranach that concern the same topic, a moralising tendency that emerges in some Neo-Latin versions of the Idyll just mentioned can be found. When Martin Luther published his ninety-five theses in 1517, German painters were obliged to make this moralising use clearly visible so that viewers could understand this refined profane painting. This moralising approach was introduced by Philip Melanchthon in the mid-twenties of the twentieth century, and it was then adopted by Melanchthon's scholar Georg Sabinus, who edited the first Latin translation of the Theocritean idylls, published in Georg Rhau's music book "Enchiridion utriusque musicae practicae" (1536). This music book, with the pictures from the 1538 edition, suggests a religious reading of the figures of Venus and Cupid in Cranach's paintings. The concern of German artists for their subjects, bearers of moral and religious values, and for the way in which they had to involve the viewer, emerges in Cranach's paintings, characterised by Venus and Cupid as protagonists.

Modern analysis

Cranach was extraordinarily successful in introducing this canon of beauty to the Wittenberg court as well as to other cities and to the aristocratic abodes of Saxony, as witnessed in the countless copies and variants of his female nudes still present today in public and private collections the world over. Cranach was extraordinarily successful in introducing his canon of beauty with a chiaroscuro woodcut, the elegant silhouette of Dürerian inspiration, featuring a slightly elongated body and a dance-like step that fits the Flemish-Burgundian aesthetic canon to the Wittenberg court as well as to other cities and to the aristocratic abodes of Saxony, as witnessed in countless copies and variants of his female nudes still present today in public and private collections the world over. A parade of female nakedness unparalleled in 16th-century European art, which begins to take shape in the late 1520s. Unsurprisingly, it is precisely during these years, as has reasonably been suggested, that Cranach had to adapt to an artistic market that was undergoing a transition because of the scant interest of Lutheran churches in the figurative arts. The Venus, accompanied this time by a Cupid who is a honey thief - an extremely popular subject based on a fable attributed to Theocritus - would allude, according to a recent, quite risky proposal, to a Lutheran concept that counters the pain that comes with voluptas with the agony of the Passion.

Cranach's style

Cranach, because of his schooling, supported the Danube school's philosophy. This explains why the painted lines in the image of Venus and Cupid with the Honeycomb are delicate and graceful. As may be seen in the character of Venus, this results in a nearly stylized representation of the figures. Additionally, it's feasible to see that the picture contains a lot of Gothic-era-specific characteristics.

Cranach's painting suffered, as did the painter, from all of his most successful artistic endeavors, which occurred around the time the Lutheran theses were published. It is no accident that the fundamental themes of Venus and Cupid with the Honeycomb and many other paintings include moral allegories, idealised nudes, and spiritual themes.

Portraits of Henry IV of Saxony and Catherine of Macklenburg by Lucas Cranach

Such a painting is the outcome of Cranach's extensive research. As can be seen, Cranach's studies of Venu's body are similar to those done for official portraits painted in the same period. To be more specific, the full figure of the Dukes of Saxony, Henry the Pious, and Catherine of Macklenburg, which predominates a marked taste for fluid linearism, is what the figure of Venus most closely resembles.

Like in many other works, in Venus and Cupid with the Honeycomb, Cranach features his characters in a natural setting. The majority of their figures are submerged in dense forests under an ominous sky, which significantly foreshadows the later Romantic concept of transcendence.

The background representation's melancholy stands out as being in stark contrast to the characters' recreation. In fact, in the painting Venus and Cupid with the Honeycomb, Venus's body is younger, sweeter, and more sinuous.

Hat of Venus

This picture displays some of the methods that the same painter used throughout all of his years spent in court. In actuality, there is a very intense pursuit of excellence, and there is a great deal of attention to detail. This is evident by the considerable attention placed on the depiction of period-appropriate attire, such as the particular hat that bears Venus, typical of the Cranach years.

The simplicity of Venus and Cupid with the Honeycomb is obvious to the critics. However, the painting's structure and imaginative expression are both lacking. Everything is intensely real. The speed with which Cranach expresses his genius creates this situation. In fact, if the males of the time may have found this technique to their liking - as a means of escaping the political unrest that was prevalent at the time on the contrary, modern man no longer looks for a place to hide. This demonstrates how well-known Cranach was in his era, but it also demonstrates why he is not as well-known today.

Despite this, Venus and Cupid with the Honeycomb, like many of Cranach's later works, show how much the artist foresees the future and how avant-garde he is. He not only became a member of the Danube school of thinking but also one of its original founders. Eventually, over time, numerous painters, including Picasso, Otto Dix, and John Currin, will draw inspiration from Cranach himself.

History

Provenance

Venus and Two Cupids by Andrea del Brescianino

The origins of Venus and Cupid with the Honeycomb are not perfectly clear. Many historians believe Cranach made his first paintbrush strokes in the XVI century in Wittemberg, a small town in northern Germany.

According to Kristina Herrmann Fiore, the artwork was eventually given to Cardinal Scipione Borghese as a gift by Paduan jurist Alvise Corradini. There is still a great deal of mystery surrounding what followed after the picture was entrusted to the cardinal. It is known that the picture was framed by the carpenter Annibale Corradini in these exact years, around 1611, thanks to the recording of an invoce.

Venus and Cupid with the Honeycomb first appeared in an art gallery in the early XVII century, alongside Venus and Two Cupids. The picture eventually disappeared due to curious transfers from one institution to another, and it wasn't found again until 1883, when it resurfaced in some records that identified the painting's real creator, Cranach.

Inspiration

The dream of the doctor or The Temptation of the Idler by Albrecht Dürer

The four line inscription taken from Latin translations of Theocritus

Albrecht Dürer, Adam and Eve, 1504, Engraving

Several Greek poems were translated into Latin at the beginning of the 16th century. Cranach read Theocritus' collection of thirty short poems, Idyllis, in this manner. As seen in Venus and Cupid with the Honeycomb, Cranach faithfully reproduced part of the poem's words in the painting's upper-right corner. Theocritus' analysis of the bee served as his inspiration. Such a metaphor depicts a life of chastity in which every yearning causes men to suffer permanent injuries like bee stings.

In the very same years, Andrea Alciati published his masterpiece, Book of emblems, which features the honey thief's symbol, an image the German painter was undoubtedly familiar with.

As is widely known, Martin Luther published his Ninety-five theses in Wittenberg in 1517, catapulting the German town onto a global stage currently governed by the stringent guidelines established by the Protestant Reformation. The artistic perspective of German painters is significantly impacted by such a circumstance. Cranach continued to produce a large number of nudes, like the Venus in the image, notwithstanding their dear connection with Martin Luther.

Past research has established that Cranach's lover served as the model for the figure of Venus. She was a Sussex duchess who had goddess-like features. On Venus's hairnet, the initials W.A.F.I. stand in for her name.

According to the critics, one of the most important models from which the painting took inspiration is the engraving "The dream of the doctor" by Albrecht Dürer, characterised by the whole figure of Venus on the right and Cupid on the left, who brushes the edge of the painting with his foot. Regarding the position of the characters, Cranach also derives from this work the veil worn by the woman and the movement of the arms. The full-length representation of Venus, without clothes, at the very least, also comes from other models, such as the woodcut of the "Triumph of the new men over the satyrs", made in 1947 by Jacopo de' Barbari. He was a Venetian artist in the service of the court of Frederick III of Saxony, known as Frederick the Wise, who was replaced in 1505 by Cranach. Another model could be the famous engraving of Adam and Eve, made by Dürer in 1504, which also features the detail of the outstretched right arm and a Y-shaped tree behind the two protagonists. The Y shape refers to the crossroads between the via virtutis and the via voluptas.

Conservation

Galleria borghese facade

The first document that establishes the painting's conservancy dates back to January 24th, 1611, when the Scipione's family note of payment for the painting's frame allowed Venus and Cupid with a Honeycomb into the Borghese Collection.

In the Galleria Borghese, visitors are now able to view it, displayed in Room 10, as it is an important addition to the gallery's impressive collection of paintings by an artist as widely regarded as Lucas Cranach the Elder. Lately, "Galleria Borghese" has been experiencing some problems in managing the energy efficiency of the buildings linked to the museum. Failures of the climatic system have created various annoyances, damaged the works maintained there, and stressed out tourists. In fact, the boards had substantial woodworm damage.

Latest restoration

After analysing the current situation and calculating the structure's winter and summer heat loads and ventilation air flow rates, a group of engineers explored the rooms to ensure internal environmental quality, architectural conservation, and sustainability. Among the main objectives are: to reduce the thermal capacity of the sealed structure, guarantee a greater exchange of air, and implement a renewal of the system. The renovation project also involved the conversion of some architectural elements, such as the flue, which became part of the new HVAC system.

Engineers have also ensured the architecture of the painting: boards were thinned, and horizontal aluminium crosspieces were used to provide secondary support.

With the exception of the significant loss of paint along the edges, particularly in the upper right-hand corner, which shows the loss of the very last letters of the Latin inscription, and in the lower left-hand corner, which required restoration work, the paint surface is generally in excellent condition. Typically, this labour involved repainting a section of the pebbled soil and touching up Venus' left foot's three middle toes. Under raking light, we noticed flaking in a few of the board joins and in Cupid's lower limbs; whether or not these are new flaking locations is unknown.

Exhibition

This painting has also been exhibited multiple times in various museums, including at the Mole Antonelliana, Torino in 1992 and at the Städel Museum, Frankfurt in 2007-2008.

Restorations

• 1905 Woodworm eradication was performed by Luigi Bartolucci;
• 1933 Color correction, grouting, cleaning, and firing of small pieces of damaged colour were performed by Tito Venturini Papari;
• 1949 General picture restoration was performed by Carlo Matteucci and Oddo Verdinelli;
• 1950–51 Removal of previous repairs, levelling of the table, disinfection of woodworm, washing, and painting by Ettore Patrito;
• 1958 Frame restoration by Renato Massi;
• 1977–1978 restored the ancient parqueting, consolidated the picture, disinfected it, removed the paint that had yellowed, retouched it, and painted over any holes by Gianluigi Colalucci;
• 1992 restoration of the cornice and colour painting by Luisa Barucci;
• 2008 completed the final adjustments by Laura Ferretti.

An analysis of the surface of the painting in the 1950s indicated that the original dimensions of the painting had been enlarged as a result of an earlier restoration, possibly in the 18th century.

Technical studies

Support and woodwork

The backbone of the painting is composed of a vertical arrangement of six equally sized wooden boards. The findings show that the composition is mainly made with lime wood, a type of wood that can be seen in many of the painter's works. along lime wood, to some extent, the support consists of beech wood, one of the wood types that Cranach liked between the 1520s and 1530s, despite it being a hard wood that is easily destroyed by woodworm.

Underdrawing

With the naked eye, the underdrawing is only partially readable. It is entirely made up of outlines and is barely perceptible behind the figures' profiles. Furthermore, it describes the finer characteristics of the hands and faces. Perhaps the black background paint, which continues to the edge of the figurines, covered the remaining areas, which were painted in a dilute grey-black medium. The fact that the artist strengthened some of the features during the finishing process further complicates an interpretation. The figure's initial location is also indicated by a sequence of highly fluid lines that trace the contours of Venus' arms, legs, and some of her torso, which all appear to have been drawn with a paintbrush.

Paint Layers and Gilding

The painter's palette turns out to be relatively constrained in terms of the colours employed along with his preference for straightforward combinations and layerings. The tree trunk was painted using greyish-brown brushstrokes rather than brown ones, with the addition of black pigment to brown earths to better match the background and make use of the visible white ground.

Under Cupid's feet there is some verdigris with white lead in the grassy vegetation. The ground's representation is likewise very straightforward: after drawing the contours of the stones, they were filled in with a grey-and-white scumble, shadows were added, and the edges were blurred with black paint.

In order to create the shadows for the flesh, a mix of lead white and vermilion was employed, along with either ochre or earth and black. The highlights were applied last, as shown by the raking light. To highlight Venus' temple veins, black was used, while for her lips a vermilion colour made from madder (Rubia tinctoria). The hat was painted using a similar mixture with the addition of black to help with shading modulation.

Azurite was used to paint Cupid's wings, while white was used to highlight the feathers' hatching. The lettering and a small portion of the hair were coloured with lead-tin yellow, while the honeycomb was coloured with yellow ochre. To create the black dots, brown earth was used (without manganese). The bees were painted using the same brown and black colours.

There is a lot of zinc in the dark background. It is possible to assume that the artist employed an earth pigment rich in zinc and black colours, given the consistent ratio of zinc to iron.

Art destruction and other production by Cranach

The unorthodox movement of 1521-22 in Wittenberg had torn down church stages and set fire to oils and rustic puppets, crucifixes, and chandeliers; in its destructive fury, it guillotined gravestone puppets in the belief that the true living image of Christ could only be handed out by mendicants on the thoroughfares, and not by workshops of art. Especially intriguing is the fact that within this setting, Cranach produced, in the German sphere, an unknown number of oils depicting profane subjects, such as apologues, myths, hunting scenes, genre oils, still lifes and pictures. For instance, more than forty Venuses with or without Cupid were produced by Cranach and his factory.

Related paintings by Cranach

• 
  Lucas Cranach d.Ä. – Venus and Cupid, National Portrait Gallery, Hermitage, 1525
• 
  Lucas Cranach d.Ä. – Venus mit Amor als Honigdieb (Venus with Cupid as honey thieves) ,Schloss Güstrow, 1527
• 
  Lucas Cranach d.Ä. – Venus und Amor als Honigdieb (Venus and Cupid as honey thieves), National Gallery, London, 1529
• 
  Lucas Cranach d.Ä. – Venus und Amor als Honigdieb (Venus and Cupid as honey thieves),Fränkische Galerie, 1534
• 
  Lucas Cranach d.Ä. – Venus mit Amor als Honigdieb (Venus with Cupid as honey thieves), Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, after 1537
• 
  Lucas Cranach d.Ä. – Venus mit Amor als Honigdieb (Venus with Cupid as honey thieves), Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1580-1620

Related paintings by other artists

• 
  Hans Brosamer – Venus and Cupid on a Snail, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1538
• 
  Hans Brosamer – Venus und Amor als Honigdieb (Venus and Cupid as honey thieves), Fränkische Galerie, 1534
• 
  Hans Brosamer, Cupid Bringing and Honeycomb to Venus, 1548
• 
  Odoardo Fialetti, Venus with Cupid Whittling His Bow, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1580–1620

External links

• Official website of the Borghese Gallery
• Media related to Venus and Cupid with a Honeycomb at Wikimedia Commons