O Mundo de Claudia:

August 21, 2007

by Bronzino, National Gallery, London

"Venus holds an apple in one hand, and an arrow in the other. What does that say: I tempt you, and I have a wound for you. And look at all the secondary figures - the raving figure of jealousy behind Cupid, speaking so clearly of despair, of love despised and rejected; the little figure of Pleasure who is about to pelt the toying lovers with rose leaves -- see at his feet the thorns and those masks of concealments and cheats of the world, marked with the bitterness of age; and who is that creature behind the laughing pleasure - a wistful, appealing face, a rich gown that might almost blind us to her lion's feet, her serpent's sting and her hands that offer both a honeycomb and something beastly - that must be the Cheat - Fraude, in Latin - who can so prettily turn love to madness. Who are the old man and the young woman at the top of the picture? They are plainly Time and Truth, who are drawing aside the mantle that shows the world what is involved in such love as this. Time - and his daughter Truth. A very moral picture, no?" -- What's bred in the bone, Robertson Davies.

Posted by claudia

Comments

If you're interested, Bronzino's Allegory is the subject of my latest historical novel, Cupid and the Silent Goddess, which imagines how the painting might have been created in Florence in 1544-5. See: http://www.twentyfirstcenturypublishers.com/index.asp?PageID=496

Posted by Alan Fisk at September 11, 2007 08:21 AM

Cheers, Olá!!!!! Já cá não vinha há muito mas estás óptimo! Adorei os filmes... Tati, Brazil... :)))) Espero que estejas bem e que te estejas a divertir imensoooo! Um beijinho... Pedro Faro

Posted by Pedro Faro at October 12, 2007 03:01 PM