"Venus Consoling Love"

François Boucher - Oil
Venus Consoling Love (1751) is an oil on canvas painting by François Boucher. This is another panel from the "bathroom" series commissioned by Madam de Pompadour in 1751. Like The Toilette of Venus, the subject matter is the goddess of love, an appropriate theme for the King's mistress's bathroom. The particular theme of this painting is a playful treatment of a popular theme: Venus disciplining her son Cupid. According to the legends, Cupid has a bow and arrow with which he can shoot humans and make them fall in love. Cupid is a gleeful youngster and loves to use his arrows, often in mischevous and even harmful ways. So his mother, as the goddess of love, frequently had to discipline him. She is shown here taking away his quiver of arrows, much to the enjoyment of the other putti, winged creatures like Cupid, but lacking his ability to force people into love. This painting (53 x 67 cm) is now in the Collection of National Gallery of Art Washington DC.