Full Record |
| Title |
A Child Dressed as Cupid |
| Collection |
Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle |
| Artist |
Unknown
Previously attributed to Vallin, Jacques Antoine (French painter, 1760-after 1831) |
| Date Earliest |
probably about 1700 |
| Date Latest |
probably about 1780 |
| Description |
Cupid, the Roman god of love and son of Venus, is often represented in art as a small, winged boy, sometimes blindfolded, carrying a bow and arrows. The arrows, once they have struck the heart, make the victim fall in love. This portrait is probably that of a real child dressed as Cupid, as it was rather fashionable in the seventeenth and eighteenth century for the higher classes to be represented in the guise of mythological characters. Mythologising portraits allowed to glorify the sitter by giving him/her ideal physical qualities, or at least placed the sitter under a particular god/goddess's benevolent attention. |
| Current Accession Number |
B.M.895 |
| Former Accession Number |
No. 162 |
| Subject |
portrait; mythology (Cupid) |
| Measurements |
64.5 x 53 cm (estimate) |
| Material |
oil on canvas |
| Acquisition Details |
Bequeathed by the founders John and Joséphine Bowes 1885. |
| Notes |
This was listed as no. 162 in John Bowes' catalogue, under the title 'Portrait of a Child as Cupid with an arrow in its hand, School of Vallin, eighteenth Century'. |
| Rights Owner |
The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, Co. Durham |
| Author |
Dr Maylis Hopewell-Curie |
|
