Cupid spurning Riches
Ca. 1654.Room 004
Guido Reni`s painting shows a young Cupid facing the viewer, with the seashore behind him, his left leg bent and left foot resting on a slab of stone. Cupid raises his left hand to a dove and with his right hand holds his bow. The loosened bowstring indicates that he has been disarmed; his remaining arrows lie in a quiver discarded on the ground. The subject appears to be a variation of Love tamed, in Cesare Ripa`s Iconologia (first published 1593), in which Cupid is represented seated on a rock with his bows and arrows under his feet, holding a bird in his left hand and an hourglass in his right. Instead of holding the bird, however, Cupid is shown by Reni as either receiving the arrow from the dove, or relinquishing the arrow to it. On the shore in the distance another Cupid is visible in the act of drawing his bow. Since the dove is a traditional attribute of Venus, it may be that Cupid is being given the arrow by Venus`s dove in order to recommence his work, and that this is what is taking place in the background. If so, the message of the painting is that the taming of love is only temporary.
Guercino`s Cupid spurning riches, c.1654 (P205), shows a similarly youthful Cupid turning to one side, eyes averted, while emptying a purse of coins. A recent restoration has brilliantly revealed the depth of colour of this work, in particular the vivid flash of orange where the light catches the inner lining of the purse. More coins are piled on the ground, and a crossbow can be glimpsed in the shadows behind. A single arrow lies in the immediate foreground at Cupid`s feet, while on the left sits a large globe of the world. The subject has traditionally been interpreted as a representation of Virtuous Cupid, but although the single arrow and the globe (representing the universality of love) fit this identification, the motif of emptying an upturned purse does not. Ripa, for example, recommends that Amor di Virtù (Love of Virtue), a related personification, be represented as Cupid holding laurel wreaths representing the three cardinal virtues: justice, fortitude and temperance.
Both paintings were first recorded in the inventories of the Alcázar Palace, Madrid, in 1666, where they were described as a pair of autograph works by Reni and Guercino. They were inventoried again in 1686 when hanging in a room named Pieza del Despacho de verano en cuyo techo está pintado Apolo, which was an office in the summer quarters in the northern section of the palace.
A letter from Camillo Massimo to his friend, the antiquarian Giovanni Pietro Bellori, establishes that these two paintings were diplomatic gifts to Philip IV, given by Massimo in 1655 in his role as papal nuncio (ambassador). Massimo had been appointed by Pope Innocent X Pamphilj, but on landing in Spain in February 1654 was refused permission to proceed to Madrid and was forced to remain for more than a year in the small town of Campillo de Altobuey, between Valencia and Madrid. He was only able to take up his appointment in May 1655, following the election on 18 April of a new pope, Alexander VII Chigi. Massimo`s correspondence suggests that the previous papal nuncio had attempted to discredit him as a protégé of the Barberini family, the papal family prior to Innocent X and who were well-known supporters of France, Spain`s main rival.
In this difficult situation Massimo urgently needed to correct the perception that he was a Barberini protégé and to demonstrate his political allegiance to the pro-Spanish Pamphilj regime. He may have brought the painting by Reni with him, intending to present it as a gift. Although Reni had died in 1642, Massimo could have obtained the work during the artist`s lifetime, or later from a third party. The presentation of gifts by ambassadors on arrival at court was an essential part of diplomacy, and paintings were particularly appropriate for Philip IV, who was known to be an avid collector. The Modenese ambassador wrote in 1652 that nowadays nothing pleases the king as much as the gift of notable pictures, because his inclination for the art of painting is greater than before.
Cupid spurning riches, c.1654, corresponds to one recorded in his libro dei conti (account book) on 19 June 1654, when a payment of 10 Spanish doble (38 1/2 Roman scudi) was made for an Amor virtuoso, the money being received from a certain Padre D. Salvatore of Piacenza. The fact that the payment was made in Spanish currency suggests that the buyer was Spanish or a resident in Spain, although doble were also used as currency within Italy. Massimo had already been four months in Campillo by the date of the payment, and could therefore have been the buyer, using Padre Salvatore as his middleman. It seems, therefore, that Massimo may have commissioned the work from Guercino to form a pair with the Reni. If he paid for the painting in June 1654 there were ten months before it was presented to the Spanish King in May 1655.
Considering that it was a small work with only one figure, this is enough time for it to have been painted and transported to Spain.
Massimo`s experiences at Campillo may have made him want to present a gift with a more pointed message than the Reni`s message of Love tamed. Cupid is shown in the act of turning away from the purse of gold coins that he is emptying. The most prominent coin carries a recognisable portrait of Pope Urban VIII Barberini and an inscription that includes the letters VRBANUS VIII. What better way for Massimo to counter the perception of him as a Barberini supporter than to present a painting of Virtuous Cupid spurning the riches of the Barberini?
The painting would have carried Massimo`s private message to the King that he owed his allegiance to the papacy of Innocent X, rather than to the extravagant Barberini regime. This point would usefully have been underlined by the presence in Reni`s Cupid, of the dove, a bird that features prominently in the coat of arms of the Pamphilj family, even though the artist would not have originally intended such an allusion (Text drawn from Beaven, L.: Italian Masterpieces. From Spain`s Royal Court, Museo del Prado, 2014, pp. 104-106).
