Venus and Cupid

The canopied bed and profile view lend an unusual intimacy to this representation of the Roman goddess of love and her son. The doves in the lower-left corner are an emblem of Venus; the discarded quiver with an unbuckled strap indicates that she has disarmed Cupid, who was notorious for wounding lovers with his arrows. The most important and inventive painter in 16th-century Genoa, Luca Cambiaso developed a highly personal style characterized by geometric simplification of anatomy and dramatic, often silvery light.