Victorious Cupid (Amor Vincit Omnia)
by RIMINALDI, Orazio, Oil on canvas, 142 x 112 cm
The precedent for the subject is Caravaggio’s Amor Victorious which illustrates a line from Virgil’s Eclogues. In Riminaldi’s work, however, the ambiguities suggested by the naughty adolescent depicted by Caravaggio are abandoned in favour of a simpler narrative. Cupid’s pose is indebted to Caravaggio’s St John the Baptist. While somewhat distanced from the raw naturalism of Caravaggio’s naked St John, Cupid’s features still recall the naturalistic tendency.