Benedetto Gennari II, Venus embracing Cupid, c. 1685

1685

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

186.8 × 135.2 cm

Status

In Gallery Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-149493

Benedetto Gennari’s Venus embracing Cupid is an important surviving work from a period of rich artistic practice and patronage that flourished in England in the late 17th Century. The mythological painting Venus embracing Cupid was executed around 1685 in the Catholic court of James II and, remarkably, was recorded by the artist in his chronological list of commissions. This record, confirmed by Prisco Bagni to refer to our painting, gives us a great insight into how and when the artwork was commissioned. Gennari’s record shows that the first owner of the painting was John Sheffield, 3rd Earl of Mulgrave and later 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby (1647 – 1721). We can date the commission to around 1685 as the entry mentions that the picture was given to Mulgrave when James was proclaimed King. Further dating evidence can be found in Gennari’s list in an entry near our picture, where the artist states that on 6th February 1685, Charles II died a Catholic and was succeeded by his brother, James, Duke of York. The true extent of the painting’s high quality and good original condition has long been obscured not only by discoloured varnishes, but by very old overpaint. Recent conservation carried out by Chesterman & Sons Ltd. has revealed that significant areas of the picture surface had been over painted in oils, probably at some point in the first half of the 18th century. Most significantly, two red curtains had been added to the top left and right edges of the canvas. Post cleaning, these were discovered to be rather crude, later additions and once removed, they revealed a much more sophisticated and subtly coloured purple curtain and drapery which forms the whole background to the picture. The background drapey had been painted out in black, an intervention which also obscured the second dove. Careful removal of this later paint has revealed, for the first time in centuries, Gennari’s original chromatic scheme for the painting which survives in remarkable condition. Beyond being recorded in Gennari’s picture list, Venus embracing Cupid is most likely referred to in the numerous inventories associated with Buckingham House and the Sheffield family. The Royal Collection archive holds a group of papers grouped under the heading ‘Documents relating to the purchase of Buckingham House by George III’, although most of these date to before the 1760s. In one inventory of Mulgrave’s property at his death, copied, apparently, in 1747, there is mention of ‘a venus and Cupid Italian’. There is a further reference, in an undated document entitled ‘An account of the paintings and pictures at Buckingham House’, to what is presumably the same picture, a ‘Venus and Cupid’ hanging ‘In the little parlour’. Gennari was, therefore at work in Britain during a brief and rich period when history painting, executed by contemporary artists, was a highly desirable and widely commissioned commodity. Perhaps uniquely in British art history, the artistic output and patronage of this period was fuelled simultaneously by the sensuousness of the royal court and the devotional and religious leanings of those at its head. These conditions attracted a profusion of gifted foreign painters and Gennari’s Venus embracing Cupid stands as a highly compelling testament to that time.