Masterpiece Story: Cupid Untying the Zone of Venus by Sir Joshua Reynolds

Historical Background

Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792) was one of the leading portrait painters in 18th-century Britain. He founded the Royal Academy of Arts and became its first president in 1768. He was then later knighted by King George III in 1769 for his painterly services to the Crown. Reynolds was a portrait painter who created images in the “Grand Manner” or “Grande Style” where the sitter receives a touch of classical nobility to elevate their elite status. Therefore, Reynolds was extremely popular among the British aristocracy.

However, not every image created by Reynolds is an aristocratic portrait. His artistic genius refuses to be typecasted as merely a society painter. He explored other themes and subjects including the expansive world of Greco-Roman mythology. Cupid Untying the Zone of Venus is one such example of a Reynolds mythological image. It is a masterpiece of mythological painting and erotic art with a famous celebrity sitter in the guise of Venus.

General Composition

Cupid Untying the Zone of Venus is an oil on canvas measuring 127.5 x 101 cm (50 3/16 x 39 3/4 in.). It presents Venus, the Roman goddess of love, in a white diaphanous dress with blue ribbons. She leans against red upholstery and drapery while a pastoral Arcadian background implies an outdoor setting. Cupid, the Roman god of desire and attraction, leans against his mother’s legs and tugs on her blue ribbon girdle. While their profiles are facing each other they are not looking at each other. Their gazes are averted and communicate a playful and erotic atmosphere.

Venus

Venus is a beautiful woman in Reynolds’s painting and follows a long tradition of beautiful sitters to represent the goddess of sexuality. The Venus’ breasts are exposed and showcase her round firm figure. She is not attempting to hide her partial nudity therefore she is confident in her loveliness and perhaps even invites the study of the viewer.

Reynolds’s Venus is a classic example of the male gaze: a female image constructed by a male artist for a male patron. Venus further implies the coquettish interaction by the playful partial masking of her face with her forearm. Her left eye holds a steady gaze and her lips curl into a smile which further imply a mischievous tease. Reynolds originally gave the painting a working title of Half Consenting before its completion, and Half Consenting certainly implies a flirtatious dialogue between the goddess and the viewer.

Emma Hart

Emma Hart was the attractive model for the lovely Venus. She was a famous beauty who frequently modelled for artist George Romney in the early 1780s. By 1788, when Reynolds made this version of Venus, Emma Hart was the mistress of Sir William Hamilton and was a famous society hostess in the Kingdom of Naples. Later, in 1791, she married Sir William Hamilton and became Lady Hamilton.

However, it was in 1798, 10 years after this Reynolds painting, that Lady Hamilton gained international fame and notoriety as the mistress of Lord Horatio Nelson, one of Britain’s greatest naval heroes. The artist model had ascended to the pinnacle of international influence.

Cupid

The little boy of Cupid resembles an angelic spirit that might easily grace a Biblical work such as the Assumption of Mary. His curly locks of hair imply innocence, and his rosy cheeks imply youth and vitality. He slowly unties the blue girdle of his mother, Venus, which will undoubtedly release her last remnants of clothing and expose more of her creamy flesh.

However, the untying act does not seem perverse or sexual. He fumbles with the ribbon like a young child awkwardly playing with a new toy. It can be argued that Cupid is simply playing with his mother’s ribbons, like any child plays with his or her mother’s clothing. However, it is the reaction and attitude of Venus that give Cupid’s childish action a sexual undertone.

Drapery

The background presents a pastoral Arcadian landscape filled with distant trees and a mottled sky. However, a large red drapery dominates the right and upper portions of the scene. Is Reynolds implying a canopy bed like the ones so prevalent in 18th-century Europe? It would be an appropriate addition to the scene as it would imply a bed, which is the realm of Venus and sexual acts.

Third Version

Cupid Untying the Zone of Venus is the third version of the same image produced by Sir Joshua Reynolds over four years. The original image of 1784 now resides in the Tate Britain in London, UK. The second version of 1785 is in the Soane Museum, also in London. The third version of 1788 is now at the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Why did Reynolds paint the same iconography three times? The reason is patronage. Lord Carysfort desired to gift a copy to Prince Grigory Potemkin while visiting the Russian court. Therefore, the 1788 Venus was an international gift to curry favor from its high-profile recipient, Prince Potemkin, who was a lover of Empress Catherine the Great. Sometimes, it is more politically savvy and wise to develop influence with the favorite of a ruler than directly approaching the monarch.

Let the “third version” status of the 1788 Venus not impact its artistic mastery. When compared to the 1784 original, the 1788 is a far superior version. It is one of those rare but brilliant examples of a sequel surpassing the original. Reynolds clearly learned from the mistakes of the 1784 image and made a dazzling improvement for Lord Carysfort and Prince Potemkin.

The 1784 version is dark and somber. The 1788 version is bright and euphoric. Venus and Cupid are not cloaked in shadows in the later version. They are bathed in a shower of light that highlights every curve and shape of their bodies. The colors are also bold and dramatic. Venus’s white dress confidently contrasts against the red background drapery and the blue ribbon accessories. Also, the modeling of Venus’s face and Cupid’s head are more delicate and nuanced. Venus’s eyes are more coy and seductive in the Saint Petersburg version. Cupid’s head is better formed with more naturalistic hair and shading. Overall, the Potemkin version is the superior image.

Mythological Allusion

Emma Hart has never looked so deliciously inviting as in the 1788 Reynolds Venus. She epitomizes what Venus represents: beauty, love, desire, sexuality, and victory. Venus was one of the most widely revered deities of the Greco-Roman world, and for centuries later she endured as one of the most popular subjects in Western art. She became a polite and artistic excuse to capture the nude images of beautiful contemporary women.

If Reynolds had painted Emma Hart in a state of undress without Cupid and titled the work “Portrait of Emma Hart,” it would have been an outrage to 18th-century British society. It would have been a career suicide to Reynolds because it would border on pornography. However, with a thin gloss of mythological allusion—it is Venus undressing—the painting is palatable and even revered as fine art. Cupid Untying the Zone of Venus is not just a pretty image of Venus. It is a complex image of mythological, seductive, and historical allusions.