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    Museum collections / The Cleveland Museum of Art
    Venus and Cupid in a Chariot
    Guercino. Venus and Cupid in a Chariot, 1615–17. The Cleveland Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0).
    AT-00000299

    Public data from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Learn more

    Venus and Cupid in a Chariot

    by Guercino

    Also known as: Venus and Cupid; Venus and Cupid Drawn through the Clouds by a Dove

    About the Artwork

    Giovanni Francesco Barbiere, called Guercino, was a prolific draftsman who used drawing not only to prepare for his many painting commissions but also to record and explore his ideas for future use. This preparatory drawing, made early in his career, reflects Guercino's nonlinear preparatory process and his simultaneous work on different compositions. It relates in format to the painted decoration at the Casa Pannini in his native town of Cento, but it features Venus instead of Diana as in the finished fresco. Guercino's combination of rapid and sure pen lines with ink wash, applied with expert variegation to create deep shadows and bright highlights, is a paradigm of the artist's exuberant high Baroque style.

    Inscriptions

    upper right, in brown ink: 44 .

    Provenance

    ?-1925: (P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London, England) December 8, 1925: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

    Exhibition history

    Master Drawings Selected from the Museums and Private Collections of America. Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, NY (organizer) (January 1-31, 1935). Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 28-December 9, 1937). Drawings from the Collection of Sir Robert Witt, London. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 30-October 30, 1938). Old Master Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 4-March 26, 1939). Drawings by Old Italian Masters. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 5, 1940-February 25, 1941). Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 4-April 27, 1941). Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 22-October 26, 1941). Italian Drawings, 1330-1780. Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA (organizer) (December 1-20, 1941). Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 17-August 24, 1942). 50th Anniversary of the Museum's Opening. Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA (organizer) (April 9-May 16, 1948). Seventy Master Drawings. Fogg Art Museum/Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (organizer) (November 27, 1948-January 6, 1949). Old Master Drawings from Midwestern Museums. The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (organizer) (June 1-September 15, 1950). Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3, 1958-October 11, 1959). Italian and French Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 13, 1959-February 2, 1960). Drawings from the Museum Collection: 15th-17th Centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 18-October 11, 1960). Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 11-September 10, 1963). Old Master Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 10-31, 1964). Art in Italy, 1600-1700. The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (organizer) (April 6-May 9, 1965). Art in Italy, 1600-1700. The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (organizer) (April 6-May 9, 1965). Old Master Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 29, 1966-February 28, 1967). Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 9, 1967-January 1, 1968). Italian Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 30-March 26, 1968). Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 11-October 21, 1968). Connoisseurship in Italian Figural Compositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 1980-February 15, 1981). National Schools of Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 14-September 18, 1983). Baroque Imagery. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 6, 1984-January 6, 1985). Italian Drawings from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 16, 1986-March 1, 1987). Guercino: Master Draftsman: Works from North American Collections. Harvard University Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, MA (organizer) (February 15-March 31, 1991); National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ont.,, Canada (May 3-June 16, 1991); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (August 27-October 13, 1991). Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).

    Quick Overview

    Artist
    Guercino (Italian, 1591–1666)
    Date
    1615–17
    Medium
    Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash over red chalk
    Dimensions
    Sheet: 25.5 x 39.4 cm (10 1/16 x 15 1/2 in.)
    Type
    Drawing
    Classification
    Drawing
    Department
    Drawings
    Credit line
    Dudley P. Allen Fund
    Accession no.
    1925.1188

    More by Guercino in museum collections

    • The Entombment

      Guercino

      1656 · Painting

      Public collection via the Art Institute of ChicagoAT-00001327
    • Study for "The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew"

      Guercino

      1635/36 · Drawing

      Public collection via the Art Institute of ChicagoAT-00002215
    • Christ on the Cross: Study for the Crucifixion with Saints

      Guercino

      1624/25 · Drawing

      Public collection via the Art Institute of ChicagoAT-00003053
    • Study for Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata

      Guercino

      1632/34 · Drawing

      Public collection via the Art Institute of ChicagoAT-00003482

    Open-access museum data

    This record comes from the open-access collection data that the Cleveland Museum of Art publishes for unrestricted use (Creative Commons Zero). Art Trackers shows a selection of the museum's published fields. The Cleveland Museum of Art is not an Art Trackers client and has not reviewed or endorsed this page; the museum's own website is the authoritative record.

    • View this work at the Cleveland Museum of Art
    • The Cleveland Museum of Art: open-access terms

    Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 7, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.

    Open-access museum record · AT-00000299

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