Jacopo Amigoni, Italian, 1682/85-1752: Venus Disarming Cupid, 1730s or 1740s; oil on canvas, 76.0 x 63.7 cm. Ackland Fund. 86.47
Amigoni’s Venus Disarming Cupid (circa 1730s or 1740s) is a product of the traditional world, an established subject from classical mythology painted in an international rococo style, owned and probably commissioned by an artist who was also a member of the nobility.
An inscription on the back of this painting indicates that it belonged to the great opera singer Farinelli (Carlo Broschi). Like many of the great male singers of the eighteenth century, Farinelli was a castrato, castrated as a boy to preserve his beautiful soprano voice. What did it mean to such a person to possess a painting of Venus and Cupid, the pagan embodiments of sexual love?