Venus mit Cupido (Scheinskulptur) 

Gaspare Diziani made this drawing of Venus and Cupid with pen and brown ink wash in the 18th century. The work, whose title translates as “illusory sculpture,” depicts the classical goddess of love and her son in a niche as if they were made of stone. The artist worked in Venice, where the culture of display was flourishing, and increasingly, open to public access. As the middle class grew, so too did curiosity about the visual arts. Works like this one, created on paper, reveal something about the behind-the-scenes labor required to produce the monumental paintings and sculptures prized by the elite. The artist has not only represented Venus and Cupid, but also the means and setting through which art is made visible. To understand such a drawing, one must do some digging in the archives: What did it mean to be an artist in 18th century Venice? What role did drawings play in the art world and the market?