Hi I'm Charlotte Wytema and I'm the Simon Sainsbury Curatorial Fellow
here at the National Gallery and today I'll be talking about this captivating
painting 'Cupid Complaining to Venus' which was painted by the German artist
Lucas Cranach in around 1526 and 1527 and I'll be exploring the question:
why is this little angel covered in bees and what does that tell us about myths and their meaning?
When Lucas Cranach painted this picture he was the leading painter and printmaker of
Northern Europe and he held the prestigious position of court painter to the electors
of Saxony the aristocratic rulers of an area that is today in Eastern Germany
It was based in a town of Wittenberg and he ran a large workshop there.
He was a very versatile artist so he painted large altar pieces and small portraits but he was also
in demand for mythological pictures and nudes and that is the category into which our picture falls
In order to learn why this little angel is covered in bees we need to take a good
look at what is actually going on in this painting
It's not a Christian angel that we're looking at in fact it is Cupid the Roman god of desire and
attraction and he's standing alongside his mother Venus the Roman god of love
While they're standing next to an apple tree that is laden with
fruit and they are set in this beautiful and lavish landscape
Venus is naked except for two golden necklaces and her large
extravagant hat which is set with ostrich feathers
She makes her way to her son she steps over a branch and holds another branch in her hand and
he is clearly in need of her help as he has just stolen a piece of honeycomb from a hole
in the tree trunk next to him and he is now facing consequences of that foolhardy action
He is covered by a swarm of angry bees and he has his mouth open in
what we can only imagine must be a shriek of complaints about his rather dire situation
To find out more about the meaning of this picture we need to turn our
attention to the upper right corner because they're above the branches and
against a brilliant blue sky is a Latin inscription consisting of four lines
and this inscription holds the key to the interpretation of the picture
It translates as: young Cupid was stealing honey from a hive
when a bee stung the thief on the finger so it is for us the
brave and fleeting pleasure we seek is mingled with sadness and brings us pain
so the painting depicts a morality tale it is a witty warning of the effects of giving into
temptation and informs us that transitory pleasure is mingled with sadness and pain
we now know that little cupid is covered in bees because he stole some honey and
we know that Cranach painted this picture did teach us a moral lesson
but what is the source of this myth and why did Cranach decided to pick this specific story
the short inscription and the subject of the painting are based on a classical
poem called 'The Honey Thief' and this poem is attributed to the 3rd Century
Greek poet Theocritus and examining this poem highlights the comical elements of the painting
Theocritus writes that after being stung by the bee
Cupid complaints of Venus about how a creature so small can inflict such cruel painful wounds
Venus laughs and responds that in fact Cupid himself is just like a bee
the love he spreads with his arrows can be as sweet as honey
but the stings of his arrows can equally be as sharp as the sting of a bee and this is of course
why it's funny because Cupid who usually inflicts pain is now being called himself
at a time works by classical authors such as Theocratus were of great interest to the scholars
and humanists of Wittenberg and they would often translate verses from Greek into Latin
in order to show off their proficiency in both languages and their familiarity with the classics
Theocratus's 'Honey Thief' was especially popular at least nine different versions of
it were published between 1526 and 1530 which is around the exact same time that Cranach
painted this picture and we know that Cranach had access to the intellectual elite of Wittenberg
he was close friends with the famous reformer Martin Luther as well as with the professor and
humanist Melanchthon and we also know that Cranach often collaborated with Wittenberg scholars
so it is quite likely that Cranach painted 'The Honey Thief' as a result
of his contacts with the scholarly community and their interest in this specific poem
Cranach's visualisation of this topic became hugely popular itself
he and his workshop assistants produced
at least 20 different versions of the subject between roughly 1526 and 1545
of which this is one of the earliest and finest examples
no two of these versions are alike which becomes evident when we compare this picture to another
version of the same subject in the National Gallery's collection which was painted in 1529
and not only is this picture much smaller but Cranach made variations in the figure's poses
and the background he signed both paintings with his emblem derived from his coat of arms
a little winged serpent with a ring in its mouth and we can find it on the stone below
Venus's feet in both paintings and in the second painting Cranach even added the date
but why was there such a demand for Cranach's paintings of the honey thief
well there are actually quite a few reasons for this the first one is that it's an absolute feast
for the eye it's luscious with color the figures are very charming and in Cupid's case really cute
Wittenberg scholars and humanists must have loved Cranach's inventive visual response to this poem
this witty moralistic and comical composition with almost theatrical figures
as a viewer you can't help but be amused by the situation that
Cupid has gotten himself into and by Venus's smile and her telling look
I mean it's almost as if she's about to shake her head at us or roll her eyes
the painting would not only have appealed to scholars but also to nobles at the Saxon
Court who were equally often interested in classical literature and other humanist
subjects and they would have particularly loved the landscape in which the figures are painted
so to the left are a stag and a hind in semi darkness while to the right is this crag with
a castle on top of it against this blue sky which fades to white and if you look even
closer you can find charming little details such as two figures walking on the path of the crag
or the two swans in a water
as hunting was a favorite pastime of nobles at
the court this lavish landscape must surely have appeal to them
another reason why Cranach's painting of 'The Honey Thief' was so popular
this time especially to male viewers is the fact that Venus the goddess of love is shown naked
Cranach has depicted her as an object of desire he painted her as this idealised female beauty and
placed her right in the center of the composition and he contrasted her body by placing it against
this dark foliage by viewing the nude Venus as an object of temptation it has even been
suggested that the subject of 'The Honey Thief' could be interpreted as an allegory of syphilis
a disease that was raging all across Europe at the time syphilis like Cupid's sting of love
could indeed count as the sorrow and the pain after giving into temptation which is what the
inscription of the painting warns us against such a reading is tempting although admittedly
impossible to prove without more concrete evidence there is one more thing that could have
contributed to the popularity of this composition by depicting a woman naked under an apple tree
Cranach made a very deliberate reference to another story that warns of the dangers of giving
into temptation that of Adam and Eve who were made by God lived in Paradise in the Garden of Eden
and sinned by eating from the tree of knowledge this connection becomes even more evident when
we compare our painting with a picture also by Cranach of Adam and Eve in the Courtauld gallery
which he painted around the same time as ours in this painting the figure of Eve makes a gestures
identical to that of our Venus while standing under a similar apple tree combining a secular
subject with a religious reference might seem strange to us today but at the time this was
not uncommon and at the Saxon Court mythological and religious images were often shown side by side
We do not know for whom Cranach painted this distinctive picture but it's high
quality and its classical subject matter indicate that it must have
been a wealthy and erudite patron such as a humanist scholar or a noble at a court
almost 500 years after Cranach painted it this picture with its witty subject
matter its beautiful landscape and its double layers of meaning
it still holds the power to captivate viewers to this very day
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