Venus Disarming Cupid
A
window in the life
and times
of Jacopo Amigoni
Table of Contents
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
I.
J.
K.
L.
M.
Life and History of Jacopo Amigoni
Ownership and Patronage
Friendship of Amigoni and Farinelli
Political Context
Natural vs. Achieved
Social Context
Cultural Context
Genre: History painting
Rococo Style and Examples
Subject Matter
Iconography
Overview
Bibliography
Jacopo Amigoni
(1685-1752)
A brief history of Amigoni’s life
• Born in1685 and trained in Venice.
• He worked in European countries such as England,
France, Bavaria, and Spain.
• Venetian history and portrait painter
• Painted portraits and large-scale decorative paintings.
• Known for his Rococo style.
• Influenced by Sebastian Ricci and Giovanni Battista
Tiepolo.
• He died in Spain in 1752.
Major Events during the Life of Amigoni
• Jacopo Amigoni (1684-1752) in historical context
• Period characterized by Revolutions
– Religious tension
• Catholic foundation vs. Protestants sola scriptura undermined authority
– Theories by Locke, Hume, Berkley
• Locke’s Treatises on Government (1690)
– - if the gov’t breaks its contract, subjects free from obligations
– Scientific advances of Galileo and Newton natural philosophy
• Galileo disproved Ptolemaic model, Newton proved heliocentric
• Universal application of gravity and laws of motion inspire other ideas
– If the laws of physics can be applied everywhere, why not natural rights?
• 1733 John Kay invents flying shuttle – Industrial Revolution
– End of Absolute Monarchy
• Charles I in England – beginning of a series of Revolutions
• Louis XIV r.1643-1715
– On his heels the French Revolution
– Birth and rise of Voltaire (1694), Rousseau (1712), Kant (1724), Franklin
(1706)
• Key advocates for Enlightenment thought
Historical Events continued…
• These Revolutions contribute to the rise of
Enlightenment thought
– Age of Reason
– Natural rights of man
– Much of Rococo is reaction against
Absolutism towards Enlightenment
– Seen in the Amigoni
– Significant because it shows bridges two
important ideological movements
Ownership and Patronage
• Carlo Broschi, known as Farinelli, a famous opera
singer of the time period, was a loyal patron and
active advocator of Amigoni’s work
• He was also believed to be the original owner of
Venus Disarming Cupid
• The two itinerant artist’s fed off each other’s mutual
promotion which in turn helped boost the career of
each within the art societies of the time.
• Contacts were essential to attaining success as an
artist during this era.
• Amigoni and Farinelli, also
known as Carlo Broschi
(1705-1782) were friends,
and Farinelli was thought to
have owned the painting of
“Venus Disarming Cupid”
• The two lived in London
and Paris during the same
times.
• Farinelli owned 23 of
Amigoni’s paintings
• Amigoni painted many
portraits of Farinelli
The Singer Farinelli and Friends 1750-52
Jacopo Amigoni
Ritratto di Farinelli 1734-35
Jacopo Amigoni
Political
Context
•
Much of the Rococo is a
reaction against Absolutism
•
This picture of Louis XIV
provides a good contrast
between the two movements
•
One major contrast is the
natural versus the achieved
•
This is portrayed in the
comparison between the male
form and the female form
•
Contrast between male and
female forms rebellion against
political systems
Portrait de Louis XIV 1701
Hyacinthe Rigaud
Natural vs. Achieved
• Forest vs. palace
• Naked vs. robes
• God vs. King
• Female vs. Male
• Classical vs. Modern
• Innocence vs. power
• Natural rights vs.
King’s prerogative
•Free from obligations
•Enlightenment vs.
Absolutism
•The emphasis on the natural reflects the ideas of the natural rights of man
(authority for this is from an ancient source)
Social Context
After the death of Louis XIV, art shifts to salons and wealthy homes (upper class)
Wealthy wish to concentrate more upon pleasures than responsibility
Rebel against the rigidity and darkness of earlier baroque
Exchange of moral obligation and serious events for fantasy and carefree atmosphere
Art Demonstrated optimism due to advances and belief in social progression
Francois Boucher
The Fountain of Love
c. 1748
A greater
acceptance
of sensuality
is present
throughout
Europe.
This leads to
a direct
engagement
of the
viewer.
Caravaggio.
Cupid. c.1601
Rembrandt
The Return of the
Prodigal Son
c. 1662
Cultural Context
•
•
•
•
•
•
There were many constraints on painting at the time, especially the influence of the
Académie Royale and the hierarchy of genres
Many wealthy young men, from England in particular, traveled on The Grand Tour
and collected artwork on their journey
Extravagance of Italian Opera and emphasis on pleasure and the frivolity- Carnival
in Venice
Many Italian artists were gaining popularity with aristocrats from England who
came on Grand Tour
The desire for large scale history paintings switched to more portable works and
commissioned portraits
Political movement no longer supports Rococo but moves towards Neoclassical
Modern Rome
Panini
Genre: History painting
• Mythology
• Grand events in Greek or
Roman history
• Reference to literature and
religion
• Idealization of human
figure-classical
• Allegory/ideas
Bathsheba Bathing 1725
Sebastiano Rici
Venus and Cupid
Giovani Antoni Pellegrini
*This piece by Pelligrini is thought to have
been a direct reference to “Venus Chastising
Cupid” because of the similar positions and
style theme in both paintings.
Elements of Rococo Style
• Emerged in France during the early eighteenth
century
• Very romantic
• Characterized by richness, lightness, and love
• Focused on carefree aristocratic life and lighthearted
romance
• S-curves
• Often involves natural settings, cherubs, and peaceful
scenes.
• Departure from Baroque’s church/state tradition
The Birth of Venus
Francois Boucher
Vulcan Handing Venus the
Weapons for Aeneas
Francois Boucher
This contrasts the original
painting of Cupid being
disciplined by Venus
because Mars would be a
much harsher disciplinarian.
He does not represent the
femininity, love, and
lightheartedness of Venus.
An Artistic Contrast:: Cupid Chastised by
Mars
Subject Matter
and
Iconography
The incident
in myth that
Amigoni
depicts
occurs in
Book X of
Ovid. Venus
accidentally
falls in love
with Adonis
when one of
Cupid’s
arrows
grazes her
chest.
JACOPO AMIGONI
Italian, Venice (active
throughout Europe),
1682/85 - 1752
Venus Disarming Cupid
oil on canvas, 1730s or
1740s
Ackland Fund 86.47
Ackland Art Museum
Chapel Hill, NC
“…Once, when Venus’ son
Was kissing her, his quiver dangling down
A jutting arrow, unbeknown, had grazed
Her breast. She pushed the boy away.
In fact the wound was deeper than it seemed,
Though unperceived at first…”
AMIGONI,
Jacopo
Venus and
Adonis
Date unknown
Oil on canvas,
142 x 173 cm
Alte
Pinakothek,
Munich
Venus’s
love with
Adonis
fascinates
many
artists, so it
is a fairly
common
subject.
(Impelluso
240)
“…Enraptured by
The beauty of a man, she cared no more
For her Cythera’s shores nor sought again
Her sea-girt Paphos nor her Cnidos, famed
For fish, nor her ore-laden Amathus.
She shunned heaven too: to heaven she preferred
Adonis…”
Venus was the
Roman goddess of
sensual love.
Venus’s nakedness and
splayed body suggest both
vulnerability to the arrow and
the idealization of feminine
beauty and sensuality by
male artists during the
Rococo period. (Heleniak
641; Goodman 323;
Goodman 325)
Venus
Cupid was the Roman
god who caused people
to fall in love with his
arrows.
Artists commonly depict him
as “a clever, somewhat
impudent winged child”;
occasionally punished for
mischief (Impelluso 66).
Cupid
Putti, or cherubs,
are generally
attendants of deities
like Venus in
European art of this
period (Pierce 122).
The winged children
are derived from
Christian angels
(Whittlesey 62).
In Rococo paintings,
they lend an air of
levity with their
playful antics,
making the painting
pleasurable to look
at (Pierce 122).
Putti
In art, the forest, especially a clearing, is a sacred and secluded place of
unexplored femininity, nature, and regeneration (Battistini 244-245).
In art, spring and summer signify the rapture of love and marriage and
fertility, respectively (Adler 793).
Forest, Spring, and
Summer
Red and pink
signify the
passion of
love.
White creates a sense
of innocence in this
painting of Venus and
Cupid to balance the
sensuality in the
painting.
Drapery Color
The bow alludes to the
moderation of instinctual
drives (Battistini 343).
Here it is a toy for the putto
in the clouds; Venus’s
passion for Adonis will be
unrestrained.
The arrows “allude
to amorous glances
that pierce the
heart like darts”
(Battistini 343).
Bow and Arrows
Looking Back…
This presentation has covered:
~the life of Amigoni and his place in history
~the relationship between Farinelli and Amigoni
~the cultural, political, and social contexts of Venus
Disarming Cupid
~the genre of history painting
~elements of Rococo style
~the iconography and subject matter of Venus
Disarming Cupid
Bibliography
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Blanning, T.C.W., ed. The Eighteenth Century: Europe 1688-1815. New
York, Oxford University Press, 2000.
Department of European Paintings. "The Grand Tour". In Timeline of Art History.
New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–.
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/grtr/hd_grtr.htm (October 2003)
Elise Goodman, “Female Beauty and Adornment” Vol. 1, A-L; Helene E. Roberts,
Ed., Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of
Art., (Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1998).
E.S. Whittlesey, Symbols and Legends in Western Art: A Museum Guide, (New
York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1972).
Galitz, Kathryn Calley. "The French Academy in Rome". In Timeline of Art
History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–.
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/frac/hd_frac.htm (October 2003)
Helene E. Roberts, Ed., Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes
Depicted in Works of Art., (Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1998).
Hubala, Erich. Baroque and Rococo Art. New York: Universe Books, 1976.
James Smith Pierce, From Abacus to Zeus: A Handbook of Art History, Fifth
Edition (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1995).
Bibliography continued…
• Kathryn Moore Heleniak, “Naked/Nude” Vol. 2, M-Z; Helene E. Roberts,
Ed., Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in
Works of Art., (Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1998).
• Lucia Impelluso, Gods and Heroes in Art, Ed.Stefano Zuffi, Trans. Thomas
Michael Hartmann, (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Trust, 2002).
• Matilde Battistini, Allegories and Symbols in Art, Trans. Stephen
Sartarelli. (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Trust, 2005).
• Minor, Vernon Hyde. Baroque and Rococo Art and Culture. New York:
Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1999.
• Pignatti, Terisio. The Age of Rococo. London: Cassell Publishers Limited,
1988.
• Shane Adler, “Seasons” Vol. 2 M-Z; Helene E. Roberts, Ed., Encyclopedia
of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art.,
(Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1998).
• Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association,
Vol. 95. (1964), pp. 268-282.