Auction of the Cupids
Medium
Etching on ivory wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 28.8 × 38.7 cm (11 3/8 × 15 1/4 in.); Plate: 31.5 × 41 cm (12 7/16 × 16 3/16 in.); Sheet: 34 × 42.2 cm (13 7/16 × 16 5/8 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
149500
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
For the Auction of the Cupids, Johann Heinrich Ramberg combined his classicizing aspirations with frothy, titillating humor. The scene depicts winged putti being sold to the highest bidder in a verdant landscape. These charmed infants seem to gravitate naturally into the hands and under the skirts of the young and buxom; they are more reluctant to stay confined in the baskets of the elderly hags hoping for one more chance at love.