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Description: | Cupid, the Roman god of love and son of Venus, is often represented in art as a small, winged boy, sometimes blindfolded, carrying a bow and arrows. The arrows, once they have struck the heart, make the victime fall in love. This portrait is probably that of a real child dressed as a Cupid, as it was rather fashionable in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries for the wealthy to be represented in the guise of mythological characters. Mythologising portraits allowed to glorify the sitter by giving him/her ideal physical qualities, or at least placed the sitter under a particular god/goddess's benevolent attention. | Subjects: | mythology (Cupid); portrait (unidentified boy) | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Artist: French School Æ | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=8960... | Go to resource |
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