Venus and Cupid riding two sea monsters, Cupid raises an arrow in his right hand, two heads representing wind in the clouds above

Art Historical Context

Behold *Venus and Cupid riding two sea monsters*, a engraving from around 1515–27, now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department.ed by Marco Dente, this print reproduces designs attributed to the Renaissance master Raphael (Raffa Sanzio) and Giovanni Marco Paluzzi The dynamic scene bursts with mythological energy: Venus and her son Cupid astride fantastical sea beasts, Cupid brandishing an arrow triumphantly in his right hand, while ethereal wind heads swirl in the clouds above. At 10 5/8 × 6 15/16 inches, its trimmed sheet invites close inspection of the intric...

About the Artist

Marco Dente|Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio or Santi)|Giovanni Marco Paluzzi · 1515–1527

Marco Dente (died 1527), also known as Marco da Ravenna, was among the most accomplished printmakers working in Rome during the High Renaissance, a period that witnessed an extraordinary flowering of engraving as both a reproductive and an independent artistic medium. Little is known of his early training, but by the second decade of the sixteenth century he had established himself in the orbit of...