Venus and Amor

Hopfer, Daniel (ca. 1470-1536)

Item type:

print

Date of creation:

ca. 1512

Height:

22.0 cm  (8 11/16 in.)

Width:

15.3 cm  (6 in.)

Technique / Medium:

engraving, on paper

Place of creation:

Deutschland

Description

A winged Venus and Cupid stand in an otherworldly scene surrounded by five small flying heads of demons. Venus is wearing a Haube, two thin necklaces that hang down between her breasts, and a cloth that winds around her right elbow and then drapes across her loins. She is holding a thistle blossom in her left hand on which a scops owl is perched. Her right foot is on the ground and her left foot is on a human skull. Cupid stands to her right, is playing a lute, and singing. His head is topped with curly hair, and he is wearing only a sash around his waist that is tied on his left side. His bow and arrows are leaning against a tree behind him. A dragon demon is seated behind Venus's legs and is holding a Kloben for catching birds in its hands. The artist's initials and the number 102 are written in the lower left.

Iconclass

92C454
Venus and Cupid (Cupid not being mere attribute)
11K
devil(s) and demons

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Lute [3394]

RIdIM images

Image URLs

image link 1

Bibliographic references

Barryte, Bernard. Myth, allegory, and faith: The Kirk Edward Long Collection of Mannerist prints (Stanford, CA: Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, 2015) 329, no. 25. ISBN: 9788836630882.

Metzger, Christoph. Daniel Hopfer: ein Augsburger Meister der Renaissance: Eisenradierungen - Holzschnitte - Zeichnungen - Waffenätzungen (München: Staatliche Graphische Sammlung ; Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2009) 404–07, no. 82. ISBN: 9783422069312.

Stempel, Jeroen. "The foul fowler found out: on a key motif in Dürer's "Four Witches", Simiolus 30/3-4 (2003) 143–160, esp. p. 160.

Scribner III, Charles. "Hopfer's Venus and Amor: An addendum", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 36 (1976) 25-27.

Schribner III, Charles. "Daniel Hopfer's Venus and Amor: Some iconographic observations", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 35/1 (1976) 14–21.

Thieme, Ulrich, Hans Vollmer, and Felix Becker. Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart: Unter Mitwirkung von etwa 400 Fachgelehrten (Leipzig: Seemann, 1909) v. 17, 475, col. 2.

RIdIM record id

5445