Venus and Cupids with the Arms of Mars

In 1743 France was in the middle of the War of the Austrian Succession, which had broken out in 1740, its armies fighting across Germany and the Low Countries. That same year Carle van Loo, the most sought-after painter in the Paris of Louis XV, set down this scene. Venus is ringed by cupids, the small winged children of love, who are handling the armour and weapons of Mars, the god of war. One tries on the helmet, another drags the heavy shield, and the sword and breastplate lie where they were dropped. The old idea of love disarming war becomes here pure Rococo play, all soft skin, silk and rosy light. At the lower right he left the signature, Carle Vanloo. The canvas stands a little over a metre high and has hung in Basel since the museum acquired it in 1859.