Provenance

Anna Barbato

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A nearly nude woman with pale, pink skin reclines along golden-yellow grass with a grove of trees behind her to our right and a landscape with rocky cliffs along a rippling shoreline to our left in this horizontal painting. Her legs extend to our left, and her body is tipped to face us, her hips stacked. Her left elbow, to our right, is propped on a swell in the ground to lift her torso. She looks off to our left with hazel-brown eyes under faint, curving brows. Her skin is smooth and shadows blur the corners of her eyes and mouth. She has a straight, long nose, and her rose-pink lips are closed. Her copper-brown hair is pulled back and up, and wraps around her head. A long, teardrop-shaped pearl hangs from the ear we can see. With both hands, she holds the ends of a translucent cloth that wraps around her hips, legs, and across her back, leaving her round, high breasts exposed. Ruby-red and white fabric lies in a heap near her feet, and a gold and pearl piece of jewelry, perhaps a necklace, drapes over the swell in the ground near her propped elbow. Small, finely detailed mauve-pink, white, or butter-yellow flowers grow in the grass around her. The land curves back along the right edge of the painting, to a grove of trees with sage and deep green leaves. An aquamarine-blue river separates her and the trees from the rocky outcroppings and towns beyond. An arched bridge spans the river and leads to a path that winds along the undulating shoreline. Buildings cluster on a rocky cliff near the bridge and a second grouping indicates another town farther along the shore. Topaz-blue clouds billow up over indigo-blue mountains in the deep distance, against a sky painted in the same jeweled blue tones.
Bernardino Luini, Venus, c. 1530, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.120

Venus

Bernardino Luini · c. 1530 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1939.1.120