Venus and Cupid

The 1636 inventory of the royal palace in Madrid, the Alcázar, lists a Titian of Venus at her mirror and notes two small details, a pearl bracelet on her right hand and a ring on the little finger of her left. That Titian has since been lost. This canvas is Rubens's copy of it, and both details survive here, the pearls at her wrist as she gathers the fur-lined red cloak into her lap. A version by Titian himself does still exist, in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and there a second Cupid is about to crown her with flowers. Here there is only one, and he has laid his bow and arrows down on the table to hold up the mirror. When Rubens painted it is still debated, with proposals running from before 1615 to 1620 or later. The Thyssen museum now dates it to around 1606 to 1611.