Cupid Making His Arch

Cupid Making His Arch, painted around 1536, is one of Parmigianino's most celebrated mythological works. The painting's sensuous treatment of the nude figure epitomizes the Mannerist ideal of refined, artificial beauty. The subject derives from Virgil's Aeneid and was popular in the courts of northern Italy, where classical learning was deeply prized. Characteristic of the artist's mature approach, the work displays extreme elongation of figures achieving serpentine elegance, delicate silvery palette, compressed spatial arrangements, a technical perfectionism that sometimes borders on obsession.

The adolescent figure of Cupid is rendered with extraordinary smoothness and luminosity, the flesh tones achieving an almost marble-like quality. Parmigianino's mastery of the youthful nude form and his sinuous contour line are displayed at their finest here.