Eine Allegorie mit Venus und Amor

An Allegory with Venus and Cupid

This painting was intended as a difficult riddle. Cupid kisses his mother Venus. The boy with rose petals probably represents Jest. Other figures may stand for Fraud and Jealousy, and perhaps Pleasure. The bearded man, frustrated in expression and action, is Time. The picture was almost certainly commissioned by Cosimo' de Medici, ruler of Tuscany, for King François I of France.