Venus and Amor [SEP] creator
Venus and Amor
Venus and Amor (also known as Venus and Cupid) is a c. 1524 painting by the German painter and printmaker Hans Holbein the Younger, conserved in the Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland. Although the work is Holbein's earliest mythological painting, depicting the Roman goddess of love, Venus, with her son Amor (Cupid), the model is believed to be his friend Magdalena Offenburg. They are shown in front of a large hanging green curtain and behind a low parapet. Venus is depicted with an open
is presumed that a Venus is missing to complete the set; another small painting by Wtewael shows the three gods, and Amor, together.
Rubens employed the motif repeatedly in different ways, including the visibly freezing "Venus frigida", a version with Amor who desperately attempts to start a fire, and one with Venus at the "Moment maßvollen Erwärmens und ruhigen Erwachens" (Moment of modestly warming and quietly waking) in which she hesitantly accepts a wine cup from Bacchus. Italian artists rarely depicted it, whether because