Agnolo di Cosimo who was more commonly known as Bronzino created Allegory with Venus and Cupid around the mid 1540’s. This painting is considered one of the strangest paintings in the sixteenth century but is also a prime example of Mannerist art. The painting has also been identified as “Triumph of Venus” and “Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time”. It is an oil on panel painting measuring 57 ½ x 46”, and is housed in the national gallery in London, England today. Bronzino was born in Florence, Italy, and began his painting career first as the student of Raffaellino del Garbo, and later the apprenctice of Jacopo Pontormo. Pontormo’s mannerist style had a great influnece on Bronzino who worked by his side not only as his apprentice but also as his partner so to speak in the cloister at the Certosa di Galluzzo. While working with Pontormo, Bronzino developed a style of mannerism that was more literal and his response to the subject-matter less sensitive, unlike his master. During the 1530’s Bronzino achieved his greatest distinction as a portrait painter, and by the early 1540s he had become the leading exponent in Florence.
There are seven figures whose identities have left many scholars at great debate, two masks and a dove that takes up the foreground plane. When examined individually each figure exaggerates poses in a graceful almost dance like form, known as "figura serpentinata" (a 'serpentine' or spiralling) pose, which was ideal for mannerist artwork. Venus while being the most noticeable figure is painted off centered to the left. She sits with her legs turned sideways on a blue cloth or blanket. Her face is in profile view as she looks towards her son cupid. In her right hand she holds a golden apple as it rest on her right calf and her left arm is raised reaching behind cupid as she takes his arrow. Kneeling on a pink pillow in a somewhat awkward position, a naked cupid hugs his mother from her left side and places his right hand on her right breast and pinches her nipple. His face is given in three quarters view, and his left hand cups her head as he embraces his mother with a kiss on her lips. At the bottom of his right foot a dove is painted. Behind cupid as if in shadow form is a man screaming and pulling at his hair. He is painted in dull dark tones as his facial expressions scream out in agony. Above the tormented man is a woman pulling a blue cloth that falls as a background for the most prominent foreground characters. Her face is given in profile view and she has the look of shock on her face. Across from her to the right is and elder gentleman who appears to be helping the woman pull away this blue cloth. He is painted in much richer flesh tones in contrast to the other characters that are pail or dull toned. His muscular arms are contradictory to his worn face and white beard. He also wears the look of shock on his face. Below the elder man there is a young boy who appears to be in a joyous mood. He’s running towards Venus and Cupid with his hands raised filled with pink roses as if he was about to shower them with the flowers. Lying between the little boy’s feet and Venus feet are a pair of masks. One painted in gold and shaped like and elders face. While the other is more of a pale flesh tone like that of Venus, and is shaped to a youthful appearance. Behind the young boy is a creature with the face and upper body of a beautiful girl, and the legs and claws of a lion. She crosses her hand which holds a honeycomb that faces towards Venus and the stinger at the end of her tail. The paintings complex allegory and relentless ambiguity probably delighted mid-sixteenth-century courtiers who enjoyed equally sophisticated wordplay and esoteric Classical references, but for us it defies easy explanation. Nothing is quite what it seems.
Similar in size and media, at 67 x 47 5/6” ‘Susannah and the Elders’, is oil on panel painting done by Artemisia Gentileschi in 1610. Today it is located at Count Schonborn Kunstsammlungen, Pammersfelden. Artemisia Gentileschi was a brilliant Italian artist who followed the Caravaggesque style. She began painting under her father, Orazio, who was one of the earliest Caravaggio followers. With her international reputation she helped the spread of Caravaggesque style painting beyond the city of Rome. At the age of 23 she was elected into the Florentine Academy of Design. Her talent however was already evident in her earlier works of art. She created ‘Susannah and the Elders’ at the age of 17 while still under her father’s wings. The subject of the painting is drawn from a story in the book of Daniel that scholars excluded from the Protestant Bible. The story tells of the beautiful Susannah bathing alone in her garden and is observed by two lecherous elders. The elders threaten to claim they saw her engaged in a lovers tryst unless she has sex with them. Susannah refuses to sleep with the elder men who made good on their threat and was sentenced to death for her supposed sexual transgressions. With Daniel’s help she was proven innocent and the two elders were then executed. Gentileschi’s rendering of this story is both beautiful and flawless. Susannah is depicted seated on an outdoor patio area. She is naked except for the cloth or towel draped over her right leg and unto the bench she’s seated on. Her arms are raised hiding her face as she turns her head away from the lewd elders. There is fear, sorrow and embarrassment in her facial expression as these men look at her with lust. The two mean are painted perched over the wall and composed in a manner of consulting one another. To Susannah’s right is an elder man in blue and red attire. His eyes are fixated on Susannah as he raises his right hand to his mouth as he ponders about what the other elder man is telling him. Next to the elder in blue and red attire is another elder who appears to be a little younger than the first due to the blackness of his hair and its fullness. He is dressed in brown garments and is faced slightly towards the older elder, with his right hand placed on the older man’s back and his left hand placed on top of the wall behind Susannah’s head. Most of his face is hidden since he is slightly bent over and whispers into the older man’s left ear. There is a great focus on the effect of light on the right side of Susannah’s body and the elder mans red garment. It is painted much brighter and has richer colors in contrast to the older man who is painted in dark colors. One can infer the darkness painted on the not so older man and the left side of the older man’s face represents the ill threats towards Susannah. Whereas the brightness of Susannah’s right side of her body emphasizes her innocence. Though both of these paintings are of different subject matter and painted during different eras of time, they do share some similarities. First both of these paintings are done with beautiful bright saturated hues. Secondly there is a great attention to the use of light and its effects. In Bronzino’s allegory, the use of light is displayed on the skin tone of Venus, Cupid, and the smaller naked boy known sometime as Folly. Their skin has more white tones giving it a porcelain appearance, while separating them from the rest of the figures in the painting, by bringing more attention to them. In Susannah and the elders, the use of light is used to display her innocence as only a part of her is painted much brighter than the other, in a diagonal direction. Thirdly both of these paintings deal with sexuality and slight erotica in both their narrative and physicality with the main characters being nude. Finally both works are made in the same media, oil on canvas. While both of these beautiful artworks share some similarities, they do also have differences. Firstly, these paintings where done in different eras of history. Venus and Cupid allegory was painted in the mid 1540’s while Susannah and the elders was painted in 1610. Secondly, their styles are different. Bronzino was known for his mannerist style painting while Gentileschi followed the Caravaggesque style of painting. Thirdly, Bronzino’s work is an allegory, not a religious piece like Gentileschi. Also, though they both share the similarity of sexuality and erotica, their perspective is different. Venus and Cupid allegory tells of an incestual relationship being exposed in the mist of time, envy, joy, and fraud, deceit etc. in contrast to Susannah and the Elders who tells of a real woman not a mythical figure being exposed and taken advantage of by perverts. Fourthly, Venus and Cupid allegory was painted by a man in his mid aged life perhaps with years of experience, in contrast to Susannah and the Elders that was painted by a 17 year old female. Something that was uncommon for the time.

References Chilvers, Ian, Harold Osborne, and Dennis Farr. "Bronzino, Agnolo." In The Oxford dictionary of art. Oxford [Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1988. 855. Janet Cox-Rearick. "Bronzino, Agnolo." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T011518 (accessed December 8, 2011).

Janet Cox-Rearick. "Bronzino, Agnolo." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T011518 (accessed December 8, 2011)

Janet Cox-Rearick. "Bronzino, Agnolo." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T011518 (accessed December 8, 2011)

Hartt, Frederick, and A. John Elliott. Study guide [of] Art: a history of painting, sculpture, architecture. 4th ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall., 1993.

McCorquodale, Charles. Bronzino. New York: Harper & Row, 1981.