Testa was one of a group of artists who were fascinated by the chubby infants who throng Titian's Worship of Venus, then in the Aldobrandini collection in Rome. Titian's canvas was based on a description of an ancient painting in the Imagines of the Greek poet Philostratus (ca. 190 A.D.). Testa did not attempt an exact re-creation of the Greek artwork but created a variant, in which the amorini (little loves) gather flowers rather than apples and Venus is present in the flesh rather than as a statue. Yet, as in both precedents, cupids fight, kiss, sleep, and, in the distant background, chase a hare to offer to Venus.

Open full-size image