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Venus and Cupid with a Honeycomb
Myth and message

The content of the painting comes from the Theocritean Idyll XIX, in which the representative of the pastoral poetry (citation) tells that Cupid, stealing a honeycomb from the hive, was hit by a bee, that picked the tip of his finger. After manifesting his pain with screams and kicks, he flew to his mother Venus and he complained to her. She replied that Cupid is like the bee, small but capable of inflicting painful wounds. Venus’ answer alludes to Cupid’s explosive force, capable of leading human beings to the loss of reason or to destruction. Bee stings correspond to the wounds caused by Cupid’s arrows, which make humans victims of a painful desire for love.

In “Venus and Cupid with a honeycomb”, along with the other Cranach’s paintings that concern the same topic, a moralizing tendency that emerges in some Neo-Latin versions of the Idyll just mentioned can be found. When Martin Luther published his ninety-five theses in 1517, German painters were obliged to make this moralizing use clearly visible so that viewers could understand this refined profane painting. This moralizing approach was introduced by Philip Melanchthon in the mid-twenties of the twentieth century and it was the adopted by Melanchthon’s scholar Georg Sabinus, who edited the first Latin translation of the Theocritean idylls, published is Georg Rhau’s music book “Enchiridion utriusque musicae practicae” (1536). This music book is very important because, with the pictures from 1538 edition, it suggests a religious reading of the figures of Venus and Cupid in Cranach’s paintings. The concern of German artists for their subjects, bearers of moral and religious values, and for the way in which they had to involve the viewer, emerges in Cranach's paintings, characterized by Venus and Cupid as protagonists.

Inspirations

According to critics, one of the most important models from which the painting takes inspiration is the engraving "The sign of the doctor" by Albrecht Dürer, characterized by the whole figure of Venus on the right and Cupid on the left, who brushes the edge of the painting with his foot. In addition to the position of the characters, Cranach also derives from this work the veil worn by the woman and the movement of her arms.