- Artist
- Paolo Veronese (Paolo Caliari)
- Year
- 1570s
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 81 x 63 3/8 in. (205.7 x 161 cm)
In this shimmering Venetian allegory, the god of war and the goddess of love are bound together by a winged Cupid, his reins drawn around them as a symbol of harmony overcoming discord. Paolo Veronese fills the canvas with his signature richness — silvery-blue silks, pale marble flesh, and a landscape of classical ruins behind the couple. Painted in the 1570s for Emperor Rudolf II, the picture turns a myth into a statement about love taming strife, one of the most ravishing demonstrations of sixteenth-century Venetian colour.