Venus and Cupid

Diaz de la Pena, a Spaniard by origin and a prominent representative of the Barbizon School, produced pictures mainly on Oriental subjects. His idyllically pastoral paintings depicting Venus and Cupid were a great success at the Paris Salons. The sentimental and lyrical treatment of the subject and the peculiarities of the artist's painterly manner betray the influence of the Old Masters and his predecessors, such as Correggio and Prud'hon. It was no accident that the artist's contemporaries called him the "Barbizon Correggio". Diaz's compositions with large figures are marked by subtle modelling of forms, soft chiaroscuro, rich colour scheme and velvety paint texture.