Love Requests Venus to Return His Weapons to Him

1768

after François Boucher

(French, 1703–1770)

Culture

France, 18th century

Medium

chalk-manner etching and engraving printed in color

Support

Antique laid blue paper

Measurements

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.)

Credit Line

James Parmelee Fund 2006.182

Catalogue raisonné

Herold 17, state I/V

State

I/V

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Location

Not on view

Description

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.