Lorenzo LottoItalian, 1480–1556Venus and Cupid
Can I see it?
Yes, on view now
Where is “Venus and Cupid” now? The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gallery 608, New York. Yes, on view now. Checked October 12, 2026.
New York, United States
Open now· until 5:00 PM
On public display.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the painting
Venus and Cupid is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Lorenzo Lotto in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It has been dated to several periods, including the late 1530s and the early 1540s, but was probably created in the 1520s.
It is a wedding gift for a couple of Bergamo or Venice. Such paintings were inspired by the classical tradition of wedding poetry.
Details
- Accession number
- 1986.138
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art — Open Access (CC0)
In the life of Lorenzo Lotto
The whole life1521–1523
Completes five more altarpieces
After the Martinengo Altarpiece Lotto decorated the churches of San Bernardino and Sant'Alessandro in Colonna with frescoes and distemper paintings, and in 1521–1523 he completed five more altarpieces, among them the altarpiece for the church of Santo Spirito in Bergamo (1521).
1523
A trip to the Marche for commissions
On a brief stay in the Marche Lotto obtained several commissions for altarpieces, which he later painted in Venice.
1525
Back in Venice, and a quarrel with Fra Damiano
In Venice Lotto first lodged at the Dominican monastery of Santi Giovanni e Paolo but was forced to leave after a few months following a conflict with the intarsia artist Fra Damiano da Bergamo; to cope with his commissions he set up a workshop. Other accounts extend his Bergamo period to 1526.
