Venus and Cupid, also known as Sleeping Venus is a circa 1626 painting by artist Artemisia Gentileschi in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Analyses have revealed the use of expensive lapis lazuli dyes to paint this piece. Art historians, therefore, surmise that it was commissioned by a wealthy patron. This fact explains why it doesn't display Gentislechi's characteristic tropes — Chiaroscuro and Action Girls. As any artist worth her salt, she was willing to modify her style according to her benefactor's requests.
The scene depicted is lavish: Love Goddess Venus is sleeping on a vibrant ultramarine blue drapery, her head resting on a crimson pillow with gold tassels, and being fanned by her son Cupid. The latter is in the form of a Putto and the goddess is an attractive, naked woman.
Gentislechi's hand can still be recognized by the fact Venus' reclining pose is far more natural than what you'd find in other painters' works.
Venus and Cupid provides examples of:
- Color Contrast: The bright blue blanket Venus is resting on contrasts with the equally saturated red pillows and curtain. This serves to encase the goddess, making a sharp division between the forefront and the background planes. Therefore bringing attention solely to her.
- Conspicuous Consumption: The price of lapis lazuli pigments, necessary for both creating an oil paint and a fabric blue this rich, was exorbitant at the time. Then there's the gold embroidery on the velvet (an expensive cloth) pillow and curtain. If you add to it that Cupid has a fan made of exotic peacock feathers, you get to the conclusion that the illustrated room is quite luxurious. Enough to house deities, in fact.
- Creator Cameo: Venus' face bears Gentislechi's features. Since this painting was part of a bigger commission by a rich patron (there were more artists hired), it counts as a cameo.
- Love Goddess: Venus and her son Cupid, the subjects of the painting, are both love gods from classical mythology.
- Name and Name: The title is fashioned this way.
- Putto: Cupid is portrayed as a winged cherub fanning the sleeping Venus with a peacock-feather fan.
- Reclining Venus: Love Goddess Venus is portrayed reclining asleep on her ultramarine bed.
