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Description: | The Venus and Cupid by Sebastiano Ricci (1659-1734) at Chiswick House is one of three paintings commissioned by Lord Burlington for his new home, from the Venetian artist during his brief residency in London from 1711/12-1716. These works are among the artist's finest achievements. Their classical style is characterised by simplified linear tension in the modelling, a bright to warm palette and a facility for technical virtuosity . In the Chiswick Venus and Cupid the harmonious results of Ricci's style - influenced by Veronese, the Carracci and Luca Giordano - are manifest. The figures in this Arcadian episode set among the clouds are bathed in a warm silvery light and their relationships are orchestrated with the controlled lightness of touch that is the herald of Venetian Rococo painting. The elegant elongated nude form of Venus owes much to Parmigianino while her pose is derived from Correggio's School of Love. Unlike this sixteenth-century picture, Ricci places the emphasis on Venus alone as the fulcrum of this allegorical narrative: in the foreground the two white doves indicate the purity of the love between the couple embracing in the background, under the influence of Venus who holds up the arrow, out of the mischievous Cupid's reach, in order to suggest the constancy of undisturbed love. The classicising frame for this painting was designed by William Kent for the work's display in Chiswick House. It is prominently dated 1729. | Subjects: | Cupid) mythology (Venus | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Artist: Ricci, Sebastiano (Italian painter and draftsman, 1659-1734) Æ | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=8730... | Go to resource |
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