Venus and Cupid. Cupid's Arrows Forged in the Smithy Vulcan

At a distance of years, Thorvaldsen could use the same sheet, add new motifs and work further on old motifs. The result is several potential datings for a sheet such as this. Thorvaldsen has sketched a quite faint Venus, Mars and Cupid in Vulcan’s Workshop, and the corresponding relief was modelled in 1810. The four elegant sketches for Venus and Cupid on the other hand rather suggest 1804-05, when Thorvaldsen was working on his first commission for the sculpture on that theme, or perhaps 1813-16, when he was again occupied with the motif.