Allegory of Carnal Love
Medium
engraving
Dimensions
image: 29.7 × 27.8 cm · sheet: 29.7 × 27.8 cm
Classification
Department
Prints
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland
Accession Number
1923.744
Tags
male
About this artwork
This enigmatic group of figures is most likely an allegory (a representation of an abstract idea) centered on human love. The winged Cupid lashes a man’s arm to a tree, while a long sash binds together two couples who hungrily touch one another. A figure of ambiguous sex at left holds the end of the sash. The print may be related to Neoplatonic love treatises in Florence. One such treatise argued that the sense of touch operates between sensual and spiritual realms, an idea embodied by Hermaphr...