Caravaggio's Cupid

A Caravaggio "first", this accessible and attractive illustrated volume focuses on one of the famopous artist's most iconic artworks, Victorious Cupid.

Usually housed at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, Victorious Cupid (1601-02) by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) is the centrepiece in a new focus exhibition show at the Wallace Collection. Caravaggio's painting, also known as Amor Vincit Omnia, shows Cupid, the Roman god of desire, in an animated pose while wearing dark eagle wings and holding two arrows. On the ground are several objects, such as musical instruments, pieces of armour and geometrical tools, which refer to a phrase in one of Virgil's Eclogues: Omnia Vincit Amor et nos cedamus amori ('Love conquers all; let us all yield to love'). The music manuscript on the floor shows a large V in the margin of the right-hand page. Scholars believe this acknowledges Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani (1564-1537), who commissioned the painting, and is said to have prized Victorious Cupid above all other works in his collection.