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Love Requests Venus to Return His Weapons to Him

François Boucher, Louis-Marin Bonnet1768

The Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States

For his aristocratic patrons, Boucher made numerous paintings of intriguing female nudes, thinly veiled as Roman goddesses lounging in luxury. Bonnet’s color chalk-manner prints of similar subjects offered middle-class buyers sumptuous yet affordable versions of Boucher’s wildly popular images. Here, a tiny cupid pleads with Venus for his quiver of arrows as she gazes teasingly at the viewer. Their feathered ends simultaneously conceal and draw attention to her nudity. With cupid’s arrows in her control, it is Venus—rather than cupid—who has the power to arouse feelings of love.

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  • Title: Love Requests Venus to Return His Weapons to Him
  • Creator: Louis-Marin Bonnet (French, 1736-1793), François Boucher (French, 1703-1770)
  • Date Created: 1768
  • Physical Dimensions: Sheet: 30 x 39.8 cm (11 13/16 x 15 11/16 in.); Platemark: 27.3 x 36.7 cm (10 3/4 x 14 7/16 in.)
  • Type: Print
  • Rights: CC0
  • External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/2006.182
  • Medium: chalk-manner etching and engraving printed in color
  • State of work: I/V
  • Department: Prints
  • Culture: France, 18th century
  • Credit Line: James Parmelee Fund
  • Collection: PR - Etching
  • Accession Number: 2006.182
The Cleveland Museum of Art

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