Venus and Cupid
Medium
Woodcut
Dimensions
Sheet: 11 1/8 × 7 13/16 in. (28.2 × 19.8 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Henry Walters, 1917
Accession Number
17.37.67
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the enchanting world of Lucas Cranach Elder’s *Venus and Cupid*1506), a delicate woodcut print measuring 11 1/8 × 7 13/16 inches. Created early in the artist’s prolific career, this work captures the Roman goddess of love, Venus, alongside her son Cupid, embodying timeless themes of beauty, desire, maternal affection. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Drawings and Prints, was generously gifted by Henry Walters in 1917Cranach, a leading figure of the German Renaissance, masterfully revived classical mythology through his Northern European lens, blending humanism...
About the Artist
Lucas Cranach the Elder · 1472–1553
Lucas Cranach the Elder (c. 1472-1553) was one of the most prominent German Renaissance painters and a key artistic figure of the Protestant Reformation. Born in Kronach, Franconia, to the painter Hans Maler, Cranach began his career in Vienna around 1502, where he became one of the founders of the Danube School, a movement characterized by expressive landscape painting and emotional force. His ea...