Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time

Venus and her son Cupid kiss and entwine in cold, enamel-smooth nudity while a laughing child scatters roses, and around them lurk the players in an icy allegory of love: bald Time drawing back a curtain at the top, a sweet-faced girl with a reptile's body and a sting in her tail offering a honeycomb, a figure clawing its head in despair. The meaning is a deliberate puzzle - love's pleasures shadowed by deceit, jealousy, and consequence. Bronzino, court painter to the Medici and pupil of Pontormo, makes the whole thing gleam like polished stone. It was probably a sophisticated gift for the king of France.