Mars, Venus, and Cupid
by LEYDEN, Lucas van, Engraving, 187 x 243 mm
In his late engravings Lucas turned more and more to the study of the male and female nude, both the pagan, Mars and Venus, and the biblical, Adam and Eve. He tried to display his virtuosity in rendering the volumetric solidity, the sensuous contrapposto, and the heroic proportions in his large nude figures.
In the present engraving, Lucas van Leyden has depicted Mars, Venus and Cupid in an austere, rectangular composition, which emphatically draws the viewer’s attention to the two naked main characters.