Cupid Complains to Venus of a Beesting

The motif is taken from the pictorial decorations in the Villa Borghese in Rome. It was the work of Vincenzo Berrettini, whose literary model was the ancient writer Anacreon. Cupid has here been stung by a bee, but in comforting him, Venus teaches him that the sting is nothing in comparison with the pain Cupid himself inflicts with his arrow.