Venus and Cupid with a Satyr (c. 1528) is a painting by the Italian late Renaissance artist Antonio Allegri da Correggio. It is housed in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.
The painting was commissioned by Federico II Gonzaga, duke of Mantua. It depicts Venus sleeping with her son Eros. Behind them, a satyr is caught while discovering the goddess. The picture was incorrectly identified as portraying Jupiter and Antiope as, according to the legend, Zeus had turned himself into a satyr to kidnap the nymph.
The painting was probably connected to the Education of Cupid, now in the National Gallery of London.
Famous quotes containing the words venus and cupid, venus and, venus and/or cupid:
“In the drawing room [of the Queen’s palace] hung a Venus and Cupid by Michaelangelo, in which, instead of a bit of drapery, the painter has placed Cupid’s foot between Venus’s thighs. Queen Caroline asked General Guise, an old connoisseur, if it was not a very fine piece? He replied “Madam, the painter was a fool, for he has placed the foot where the hand should be.””
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“In the drawing room [of the Queen’s palace] hung a Venus and Cupid by Michaelangelo, in which, instead of a bit of drapery, the painter has placed Cupid’s foot between Venus’s thighs. Queen Caroline asked General Guise, an old connoisseur, if it was not a very fine piece? He replied “Madam, the painter was a fool, for he has placed the foot where the hand should be.””
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“For her own person,
It beggared all description: she did lie
In her pavilion—cloth of gold, of tissue—
O’er-picturing that Venus where we see
The fancy outwork nature.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)