DR. ORNA GURALNIK: It made me laugh a lot, this painting. It's just like, wild. It's surprisingly wild, playful, kinky, delightful.

TIFFANY RACCO: The presence of Cupid and the numerous symbols scattered throughout this picture indicate really that this was probably commissioned to celebrate a marriage.

DR. ORNA GURALNIK: Wow, that's, um, an interesting painting as a gift for a marriage.

My name is Orna Guralnik. I am a clinical psychologist and a psychoanalyst, and the therapist on Showtime’s “Couples Therapy.”

TIFFANY RACCO: Hi, my name is Tiffany Racco, I’m a research associate in European paintings at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

DR. ORNA GURALNIK: And Cupid is kind of peeing through this wreath; what is this? [laughs]

TIFFANY RACCO: To answer that it helps to know that the appearance of mischievous peeing youths was actually a tradition commonly found in Renaissance imagery. We are likely meant to think of his stream less as actual urine and more as a kind of pure water that has the power to bring about health and happiness.

I would say that even though it plays to a certain shock value, it likely wasn’t seen as bizarre per se to contemporary viewers. Gods and goddesses, who were often shown in somewhat outlandish situations that transcended the boundaries of everyday life.

NARRATOR: Around 20 years before this painting was made, the rediscovery of ancient statues, reliefs, and coins near Rome set off a renewed interest in classical art and myth.

TIFFANY RACCO: It’s actually been proposed that the face of Venus may be a portrait of the bride given how individual her features are. So, if we take this to be true, we begin to see how classical myth became a way of visualizing one’s self in the most idealized way. Gods and goddesses became vehicles for individuals to kind of create an alter ego. And for artists the rediscovery of antiquity became an opportunity to develop new subject matter based around stories of love and lust and fidelity and strength.