Allegory with Venus and Time, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, after Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1775

Allegory with Venus and Time, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, after Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1775

etching, h 453mm × w 290mm More details

This etching reproduces a ceiling painting by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo for a gallery in the Palazzo Contarini, a Venetian city palace. The depiction is alternately interpreted as ‘Venus entrusting Cupid to Time’ and ‘The birth of Aeneas’. Given that the child lacks Cupid/ Amor’s usual attributes (bow and arrow), the second interpretation seems more likely.