비너스, 마르스와 큐피드

Around 1490 in Florence, Piero di Cosimo took an old idea and made it tender. Mars, the god of war, lies sprawled and fast asleep, disarmed after love, while Venus stays wide awake beside her small son Cupid. His weapons are no longer a threat. A cluster of playful cupids has carried off his helmet and lance to the edge of the meadow. A white rabbit sits close to Venus, a common wish for fertility, which hints at what the panel was made for, most likely set into the furniture of a Florentine bridal chamber. Piero was remembered by the biographer Vasari as an eccentric who loved animals more than company, and he filled the far distance here with a calm bay and small birds.