Venus and two Cupids

Piccinelli Andrea called Andrea del Brescianino

(c. 1486 - active in Florence and Siena, first half of the 16th century)

Long thought to be the work of Andrea del Sarto, the panel was hung in the Stanza delle Veneri [Room of the Venuses] in the mid-17th century, opposite Cranach's Venus. The Venus and Two Cupids, clearly of classical inspiration, is today unanimously attributed to Brescianino, who probably painted it in the third decade of the 16th century.

Object details

Commentary

Andrea del Brescianino's panel is abundant proof of Scipione Borghese's scholarly and sophisticated collecting skills. Long thought to be the work of Andrea del Sarto, the panel was hung, in the mid-seventeenth century, in the Room of the Venuses, opposite that of the German Lucas Cranach the Elder. This sort of ‘dialogue’ saw ‘two Venuses standing, long and narrow pictures’ facing each other: according to the arrangement chosen by the cardinal, nephew of Pope Paul V, two works of similar subject and format were placed side by side, though of absolutely different styles. Our Venus, only attributed to Andrea del Brescianino in the 20th century, is characterized in fact by that typical Italian sculptural and clearly classically-inspired ‘softness’. The statuesque quality of the figure is heightened by the faux architectural niche that frames her and from which the Venus seems to descend gracefully, as well as by the infinite range of greys, so skilfully deployed by the painter, which become pearly and pink hues in the complexion. The mythological allusion to the birth of the goddess from the sea foam is hinted at in the shell she holds in her right hand and in which she seems to be reflected.

According to Della Pergola, the Brescianino panel could have entered the Borghese collection through the legacy of Cardinal Antonio Maria Salviati who died in 1602 (1959, pp. 19-20). The work is documented in 1650 in the Villa Borghese fuori Porta Pinciana by Iacomo Manilli with attribution to Andrea del Sarto, which was to recur in later inventories; Platner (1842, p. 292) assigned the panel to Domenico Beccafumi, Venturi (1893, pp. 160-161) saw in the Venus to the hand of Franciabigio, while Voss suggested the name of Puligo (1920, I, p. 160). The first to identify it as being by Andrea del Brescianino was Frizzoni (1911-12, p. 267); this view was later roundly accepted, beginning with Berenson (1936, p. 98), Longhi (1928, p. 348) and De Rinaldis (1948, p. 52). Coliva identified in it a syncretism that could combine the influences of the great masters of the Renaissance with the equally complex manner of Il Sodoma and Beccafumi (Coliva 1994, p. 83).

Gabriele De Melis