Venus and Cupid

For sixteenth- and seventeenth-century artists studying the female nude, ancient models—particularly Roman copies of Hellenistic Aphrodites—provided important inspiration. Francesco Fanelli gave these antique precedents a decidedly mannerist interpretation, with his figures’ elongated forms, intertwined limbs, and sleek, smooth surfaces. In this sculpture in the round, the classical ideal of Venus is given a playful “twist” with a coiled Cupid winding his way through his mother’s legs. Using a figura serpentinata (serpentine or spiraling figure), Fanelli exploits the possibilities of multiple and merging viewpoints through graceful bodily twists and intersections, which allow light and space to play freely amidst the forms. Because bronze casting allowed for the production of multiple copies and was inexpensive relative to the collecting of antiquities, it was an important vehicle in the diffusion of ancient models and subjects, a phenomenon central to the development of European art in the Renaissance and beyond.