Bronzino: Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time

Public Domain Photo: Allegorie des Triumphes der Venus (Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time), oil on wood painting(created around1545) by Angelo Bronzino (1503-1572), dimensions 146 cm x 116 cm (57 in x 46 in), located at the National Gallery, London.

Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time (also known by other titles such as ‘An Allegory of Venus and Cupid’, ‘A Triumph of Venus’, ‘Allégorie du triomphe de Vénus’, and ‘Allegoria del trionfo di Venere’), is a painting by the Florentine Mannerist artist Angelo Bronzino (1503-1572), also known as Agnolo Bronzino, Agnolo di Cosimo and Il Bronzino.

There has been extensive scholarly debate on the identity of the figures in the painting, as well as its theme, which may be described as lust, deceit, and jealousy. The figure of Venus, holding the shiny golden apple she won in the Judgement of Paris, is easily identifiable. Venus is being embraced by her son Cupid, sporting his characteristic wings and quiver. The baldheaded, bearded figure is believed to be Father Time.

The identities of the other figures are to be hypothesized. The figure opposite Time, holding the drapery, is variously referred to as Oblivion, and sometimes interpreted as Night and opposing Time. The mask-like face of this figure is symbolic of the image of two actual masks lying at the lower right-hand corner.

The figure rending the hair has been often called Jealousy, an old woman, though the protruding muscles in the figure’s hands suggest it is a man. The young boy with roses and seemingly throwing them at Venus and Cupid is interpreted as Pleasure or Joy. The figure behind him is the most complex, with a face peeping out of Pleasure’s side, giving the impression of an innocent little girl, and interpreted as, ‘perhaps the boy’s companion’. But the strange thing with this girl is that she has her lower body made up of a scaly, snake-like creature and a long tail, suggesting that it can be a personification of Evil or Deception. While she holds a honeycomb or wasp’s nest in one hand and in the other hand there is a menacing creature, possibly a scorpion (with its tail or sting on the upper side), while the lower side looks like a small reptilian animal/ snake. The girl’s palms are also fitted switching positions, her right palm attached to her left arm and her left palm attached to her right arm. Some art critics describe her as "the most sophisticated symbol of perverted duplicity ever devised by an artist..."

Dimension; 3349×4226 pixels, size: 4527 KB.

DOWNLOAD THE ORIGINAL SIZE