Cupid with the Wheel of Time
c. 1515/1520
Painter, Venetian, 1488/1490 - 1576
Cupid labors against a rolling wheel, apparently trying to stop its momentum. The space around him is energized by a wind that blows his drapery. The scene is made somber by the dark, cloudy background and the skull hanging from a tree trunk.
This painting is unique among works by Titian. The only other context in which he used monochrome was to imitate marble sculpture within details of larger paintings in full color. The present work, by contrast, is executed entirely in monochrome and with a much more fluid technique, in which the rapid handling of the brush is conspicuously evident.
This work may have originally functioned as the cover, or timpano, to a portrait. Such complements to portraits were not uncommon in Venetian painting in the decades around 1500. The painting’s allegorical subject supports this possibility. It may have been meant to represent the personality, status, or philosophy of the sitter of the portrait beneath. Based on the main symbolic elements—Cupid, the wheel, and the animal skull—scholars have suggested various potential interpretations for the image. Considering Cupid’s apparent effort to stop the wheel, the scene may suggest that love holds a central position in human life and lends sweetness to the fleeting hours, even though the roll of time must in the end lead to death.
West Building Main Floor, Gallery 25
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 65.9 × 55.3 cm (25 15/16 × 21 3/4 in.)
framed: 90.17 × 80.01 × 7.62 cm (35 1/2 × 31 1/2 × 3 in.) -
Accession
1939.1.213
More About this Artwork
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
(Angelo Bonelli, Rome), by 1803; (Bonelli sale by private contract [not an auction], No. 4 Duke Street [The Roman Gallery], London, 4 January 1803 and continuing until 15 December 1803, no. 65, as A Genius trying to stop a Wheel by Parmegianino[sic], not sold); (Bonelli sale, Christie's, London, 24-25 February 1804, first day, no. 24, as A Sketch, very spirited by Parmigiano[sic], bought in); (Bonelli sale, Farebrother, London [?], 2 May 1804, no. 42, as An allegory, a beautiful sketch -- from the Altieri Palace at Rome by Polidoro).[1] Viani, Rome. (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence and Rome); sold October 1935 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[2] gift 1939 to NGA.
[1] The original catalogue for the 1803 sale is in the Woollcombe Library at Hemerdon near Plymouth in Devon, England. This information and the details of the Bonelli sales are in a 12 September 1989 letter from Burton Fredericksen of the Getty Provenance Index to Suzannah Fabing, in NGA curatorial files. See also Fredericksen's descriptions of the three sales in their records, Sale Catalogs Br-151-A, Br-241, and Br-257, the Getty Provenance Index databases, J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles.
[2] The bill of sale for several paintings including this one, which is titled Cupid with Wheel of Life, is dated 10 October 1935, with payment received 23 October (copy in NGA curatorial files). See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/633.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1998
A Collector's Cabinet, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998, no. 57, fig. 18.
2000
Fortune: "All Is But Fortune", The Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C., 2000, no. 9.
2024
Hidden Faces: Covered Portraits of the Renaissance, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2024, no. 32, repro.
Bibliography
1931
Suida, Wilhelm. “Alcune opere sconosciute di Tiziano.” Dedalo 11 (1931): 894-897.
1933
Suida, Wilhelm. Tizian. Zürich and Leipzig, 1933: 70, 156.
1940
Suida, Wilhelm. "Die Sammlung Kress: New York." Pantheon 26 (1940): 278.
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 197, no. 324.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 246, repro. 197.
1957
Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Venetian School. 2 vols. London, 1957: 1:192.
1958
Wind, Edgar. Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance. London, 1958: 93.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 188, repro.
1960
Valcanover, Francesco. Tutta la pittura di Tiziano. 2 vols. Milan, 1960: 1:96.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 129.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 116, repro.
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XV-XVI Century. London, 1968: 186, fig. 444.
1969
Wethey, Harold. The Paintings of Titian. 3 vols. London, 1969-1975: 3(1975):209.
1972
Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972: 203, 470, 645.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 344, repro.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:481-482; 2:pl. 342, 342A.
1980
Barocchi, Paola, ed. Firenze e la Toscana dei Medici nell’Europa del Cinquecento, vol. 2: Palazzo Vecchio: Committenza e Collezionismo Medicei. Exh. cat. Florence. Milan, 1980: 258.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 210, no. 255, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 395, repro.
1990
Dülberg, Anjelica. Privatporträts: Geschichte und Ikonologie enier Gattung im 15. und 16 Jahrhundert. Berlin, 1990: 56-58, 295-296.
1996
Brown, Patricia Fortini. Venice & Antiquity. The Venetian Sense of the Past. New Haven and London, 1996: pl. 254.
1998
Kuntz, Paul Grimley, and Lee Braver. "Fortune: The Wheel." Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art, ed. Helene E. Roberts. 2 vols. Chicago and London, 1998: 1:344.
Wikidata ID
Q12115903