Cupid Shooting Arrows at the World Globe 1608

Otto van Veen made this drawing, "Cupid Shooting Arrows at the World Globe," on paper with pen and ink. Veen was court painter to the Spanish governors of the Netherlands. Cupid's arrow represents love as an irresistible force, an allegory rooted in classical antiquity. The globe bristling with arrows makes for a compelling image. What does it mean to view the world through the metaphor of romantic love? Love was often associated with madness, the loss of reason, and the triumph of the passions. Might the artist be commenting on the irrationality of worldly love? As art historians, we might look at emblem books from the 16th and 17th centuries to compare images and interpret the symbolic language of the artwork. The meaning of art is contingent on social and institutional contexts that we can reconstruct through careful research.