Venus in her Chariot from a set of Mythological Subjects after Raphael
Not on view
A reclining river god and a seated nymph, located within a gentle pastoral landscape, look up at Venus. The Roman goddess of love is seated in her chariot, with her son, Cupid, on her lap, fêted by an entourage of winged putti-cherubs. The dolphin at her feet alludes to the legendary birth of her Greek counterpart, Aphrodite, who sprung from the foam of the sea.
This tapestry is from a set of eight, traditionally called Les Sujets de la Fable d’après Raphaël, made for the French king, Louis XIV. The designs for all eight tapestries were inspired in part upon drawings then in Louis XIV's collection- now preserved in the Louvre- which were all, at that time, attributed to Raphael. The design source of the representation of Venus and Cupid in the chariot is a drawing in the Louvre now associated with Primaticcio; the figure of the river god is based, in reverse, on Raphael’s design recorded in his fresco of the Council of the Gods in the Villa Farnesina, Rome.
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