Allegory with Venus and Time

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo

ets

Rijksmuseum

This etching reproduces a ceiling painting by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo for a gallery in the Palazzo Contarini, a Venetian city palace. The depiction is alternately interpreted as ‘Venus entrusting Cupid to Time’ and ‘The birth of Aeneas’. Given that the child lacks Cupid/ Amor’s usual attributes (bow and arrow), the second interpretation seems more likely.