Venus, Mars, and Cupid

The two lovers lie in a summer landscape: Mars, the Roman god of war, has cast off his armour and is asleep, clad only in a loincloth, in an elegant pose. Opposite him lies Venus, the almost entirely naked goddess of love. She has enclosed her son Amor with a fine veil and drawn him to her hip. In this tranquil idyll, the artist shows nothing of the continuation of the story, which in fact tells of deceit and revenge as Hephaistos, the hideous-looking god of fire and the husband of Venus, discovers the two lovers. Winged putti have taken possession of the resting war god’s armour, and two courting doves point to the true subject of the panel: the relationship of love between the two deities and thus the Neoplatonic idea of the taming of war by love. The wide rectangular format, into which the resting bodies of the youthful gods fit with grateful ease, also provides a clue to the original function of the painting. Panels of this kind were made in Renaissance Italy on the occasion of marriages, and presented as a dowry for decorating bridal chests or furniture. Details of the picture that Piero de Cosimo suggests in the soft plumage of the doves, the precious fabrics, the gentle touch and the delicately snuffling nose of the rabbit evoke not only sensual pleasures but also references to classical histories and artists’ myths.
The rediscovery of antiquity played a vital role in the iconography of the Italian Renaissance. Thus, the relationship between Venus and Mars, an erotic reference to carnal love, is not only an excellent symbol of harmony and the triumph of love; at the same time this scene, bathed in light, expresses a sophisticated knowledge of classical, humanist scholarship; the putti playing with the war god’s armour reveal exploration of the antique myth of the artist and evoke a legendary work by the Greek painter Aetion. He is said to have painted a depiction of the wedding night of Alexander the Great and Roxana that showed gods of love playing with the ruler’s weapons. Piero di Cosimo’s gambolling putti in the background of the picture are a reference to this scene. This reminder of the famous wedding picture of antiquity, which glorified the Hellenistic ruler and his consort, may be regarded not only as a heroic parable for the person who commissioned it: it also places its creator in direct succession to the great painters of ancient times, whose lives Renaissance artists were once again beginning to explore.
Piero di Cosimo also hints at the ancient myth of the artist through the butterfly, which does not sit on the knee of Venus herself but has settled on the painting in a trompe-l’oeil, a “deception the eye”, thus confirming the faithfulness to life of the depiction. Here, too, the creator of the painting is appropriating a motive of artistic mastery from ancient times, here connected to the Greek painter Zeuxis, of whom Pliny reports in his Natural History that in a competition he painted grapes so true to life that birds tried to peck at them. As the poet is able to bring things to life by describing them with words, so the painter achieves the same ends with a brush. Christine Seidel | 200 Masterpieces of European Painting - Gemäldegalerie Berlin, 2019