Standbeeld van Venus met Amor 1636 - 1647

Cornelis Bloemaert made this print of Venus and Cupid in the Netherlands sometime in the 17th century. Bloemaert's print speaks to the way classical antiquity shaped the art and culture of the Dutch Golden Age. Here, Venus, the goddess of love, emerges, holding a shell to her breast, referencing the classical story of her birth from the sea. Cupid, her son, looks up to her, ready to spread love's influence. The image comes from a period when Dutch artists, though surrounded by the wealth of a global empire, engaged with the cultural legacy of ancient Greece and Rome. Artists in academies were drilled in the classical ideals of beauty. Prints like these helped disseminate those ideals to a wider public. To better understand this print, we might look at the history of art academies and the circulation of classical imagery in 17th century Europe. It reminds us that artistic expression is always embedded in a network of social institutions and cultural references.