The Birth and Triumph of Venus

Venus floats at the center of a frothing, pearly sea, surrounded by a swirl of nymphs, tritons, and chubby putti, all rose-tinted flesh and silvery foam beneath a sky of fluttering doves. Francois Boucher gives the goddess's triumph the full Rococo treatment - sensual, decorative, weightless, a confection of curves and tender color made to delight rather than instruct. Now in Stockholm, it is among his most exuberant mythologies, the eighteenth-century French court's love of luxury and gallantry turned into a shimmering pink-and-blue celebration of beauty and pleasure.