Venus and Love

Painted enamel plaque depicting probably Venus and Love (Cupid), acquired by Dionísio Pinheiro in 1947. In a golden and brown landscape stands out, in the foreground, the figure of a woman seated on a cloth (that conceals the seat) with a child kneeled in front of her. The predominant tone of both the figures is bright grey. A dark environment full of vegetation surrounds the scene. On the floor, in the foreground, we can see a quiver of arrows and a bow leaning against a bush, both insignias of Cupid. One can only feel unsecure considering the absence of the child’s wings, which can only be understood as the will for humanizing the figures, but it can also imply a different mythic context, one we were unable to identify. Predominant colours are black, white, grey and golden.
Since we are in face of one of the most frequently portrayed motifs from classical mythology, the identification of any work or inspiring model would always be risky and unnecessary. Moreover, we do not have any information about the identity of Henri Doublet, the artist who signed the work.