Venus drying her foot with a piece of drapery, Cupid in front of her, holding a bow in his left hand
Original title: Venus drying her foot with a piece of drapery, Cupid in front of her, holding a bow in his left hand
kurzbeschreibung
Marcantonio Raimondi engraved this Venus around 1510–27. The goddess sits and dries her right foot with a cloth, while Cupid stands before her holding his bow. The cleanly drawn lines and clear structure reflect the printmaking style of the High Renaissance.
Description
Seated on a pedestal, her garment slipped from one shoulder so that her body is only partly covered, Venus leans slightly forward to dry the sole of her right foot with a piece of fabric. The winged Cupid stands opposite, his left hand on the bow, a ribbon around his neck. A window opens onto mountains and clouds; on the left, the foot of a vase intrudes into the picture. The arrangement feels balanced, executed entirely in black and white with very precise, thin lines.
Context
Raimondi, an Italian engraver of the Renaissance, became known above all for his reproductive prints after Raphael. This sheet belongs to the first half of the 16th century, a time when printmaking flourished in Italy. Venus and Cupid had been a popular mythological subject since antiquity, and the Renaissance gave it new interpretation.
Impact
The calm, even flow of lines and the balanced arrangement give the sheet a classical serenity. What takes place—a moment of personal care—feels everyday and unforced despite the mythological frame; the viewer's eye lingers on this familiar gesture.
Technique
For the engraving, lines were cut into the metal plate with a burin, which allows very precise and detailed results, as the careful modeling of bodies and landscape shows. The inked plate was pulled onto paper, hence the strong black-and-white contrast of the sheet.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)