The Shot Arrow (Cupid)

The Shot Arrow (Cupid), painted in 1908 and depicting the classical figure of Eros/Cupid with his bow, belongs to the mythological subjects that Benczúr painted alongside his history paintings and portraits throughout his career. The allegorical nude figure was a staple of academic painting, providing an opportunity to demonstrate mastery of the human figure in a context that justified the absence of contemporary dress. Benczúr's Cupid subjects belong to the tradition of academic mythology that stretched from Boucher through Bouguereau, translating divine playfulness into technically demanding exercises in the rendering of idealized flesh. By 1908 Benczúr was in his mid-sixties and the academic tradition he represented was under sustained attack from Impressionist and Post-Impressionist alternatives, yet he continued to produce mythological subjects with full technical confidence. The arrow-shooting Cupid is an iconic image whose visual conventions were well established, and Benczúr's version would be judged against a long tradition of predecessors.

The figure of Cupid — a young, winged child in classical guise — required Benczúr to render idealized juvenile flesh with the smooth, luminous quality his technique was best equipped to deliver. The pose of drawing or shooting the bow introduced muscular tension into the otherwise soft form. Wings required careful rendering of both their physical structure and the implied lightness of a winged being.