Amor with the Arrow

Baldung's Amor with the Arrow from around 1530 depicts the classical god of love with his characteristic weapon—the arrow that wounds the heart with desire—in a composition that demonstrates his ability to give ancient mythological personifications the same physical immediacy he brought to Christian devotional subjects. Amor or Cupid was a standard decorative subject in Renaissance secular painting, and Baldung's version reflects the influence of Cranach's widely disseminated treatment of the same subject—the small, chubby love deity in a landscape—while asserting the more emphatic expressive approach characteristic of his figure work. The combination of the god's childlike form with the dangerous attribute of the arrow conveys the classical paradox of love's power: the vulnerability of the divine child who nonetheless commands universal submission.

The figure of Cupid is rendered with Baldung's characteristic approach to the nude figure, combining anatomical precision with expressive posture.