Mid-Morning Art Thread [Kris]

Votive Offering To Cupid
Jean-Baptiste Greuze

This painting seems to be a cross between Rococo, because of the theme and symbolism, and Naturalism, because of the color palette and message. We see a young girl kneeling before a shrine to Cupid in the middle of a lush garden. She has lit an offering to Cupid and prays for love. At the foot of the altar are gifts to the god and symbols of Venus to represent her presence. Shallow, carefree love and love-making were common themes in Rococo, but here the idea is more wholesome. This is a very young girl, probably no older than 13. She is still innocent and prays for true, real love.

The girl is the lightest form in the painting, just left of center. Her skin is warm ivory, clean and pure. Her garment is a light gray or lavender with gold trim. It provides just enough of a contrast to see it but not too much to distract from her. The altar is the next lightest form. It uses the same colors of the girl’s skin but in different proportions. The ivory tone is darker to show its age. This may represent the idea that the desire to love and be loved is ageless. The cracks on the base emphasize this further. The altar has been there a long time.

Greuze uses the gray puffs of the offering smoke to link the girl to cupid. My eyes switch back-and-forth between them. I see her hopeful pleading and his stern gaze. The rest of the background is darker browns, grays and blacks. Further to the left is an opening in the foliage through which we can see a classical building, very likely a temple, possibly to Venus herself. Mirroring this opening, on the lower right, is the pile of offerings. The colors in both are similar, white in the doves/clouds and blue in the sky/fabric, but the colors on the right are richer. The vividness in the offerings, though, are tempered by the bronze ewer and platter and keeps this area in balance with the upper left.

The relief on the pedestal is interesting. I changed my mind several times about which scene is being depicted. I finally settled on Apollo and Daphne. Eros (Cupid) was a major player in the events of that story about the conflict between lust and chastity, and a little divine revenge. It is the opposite of the painting’s main theme. I think Greuze is trying to throw in a warning to his Rococo contemporaries: Treat love with honor and respect (like the girl) or it will turn bad and hurt everyone in the end. In many of Greuze’s paintings, the poor, young, or lower-classes show more noble traits than the nobles. They are the true nobility.

Finally, I like how Greuze makes Cupid seem alive. It looks to me as though the statue came to life in response to her prayers. He is blessing the girl and crowns her with honor for her pure request. Greuze was very well received by the French philosophers of the late Enlightenment. His works were held-up as the type of art that should be celebrated, that would truly transform and edify civilization, not the decadent shallowness of the Rococo.

posted by CBD at 09:30 AM

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