Venus and Cupid

Artemisia Gentileschi was an Italian Baroque painter. Today she is considered one of the most accomplished painters in the generation following that of Caravaggio. She was a brave woman, in an era when women painters were not easily accepted by the artistic community or patrons. She painted many pictures of strong and suffering women from myth and the Bible – victims, suicides, warriors. She was raped and participated in prosecuting the rapist which then long overshadowed her achievements as an artist. Venus and Cupid is a depiction of a sleeping Venus, who reclines on a blue bed covering with a rich crimson and gold tasseled pillow. She wears nothing except a thin wisp of transparent linen around her thigh. Her son Cupid fans her with richly colored peacock feathers as she drifts to sleep. He is gazing at her with an adoring and rapt expression. In the background, there is a window looking out onto a moonlit landscape where a temple to the goddess lies. Venus’s face has full cheeks, heavy lids, a prominent nose, and small protruding chin - all features of Gentileschi's own face. The body movements are natural: Venus’s hand rests lightly on her side, her legs are gently laid together. The work blends together realism and classicism through its iconography and the artist’s style.

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