Venus and Cupid

Venus and Cupid, painted around 1533, was executed after a cartoon by Michelangelo, making it a remarkable collaboration between two of the greatest artists of the Cinquecento. The commission from Bartolomeo Bettini called for Pontormo to paint from Michelangelo's design, and the resulting work combines Michelangelo's powerful sculptural forms with Pontormo's characteristic sensibility for color and surface. trained by Leonardo and Andrea del Sarto, developed radically original Mannerist idiom in Florence.

The monumental reclining Venus displays Michelangelo's characteristic muscular female form, while the execution—particularly the cool, luminous flesh tones and sinuous contours—is unmistakably Pontormo's. The unusual color palette creates an eerie, dreamlike atmosphere.