Aphrodite1.0477

Tiepolo, Giovanni Battista, 1696-1770. "Allegory with Venus and Time". oil on canvas; 292 x 190 cm. 1754-58. Ceiling painting for the Ca' Contarini, Venice. London, National Gallery, NG6387.

This painting on canvas was part of a ceiling decoration, fixed high overhead for observers. Still, it manifests "virtuoso brush strokes in airy spaces, shimmreing with light" (Langmuir). Venus, voluptuous and pink as ever, offers a newly born child to Father Time (Chronos/Cronus). The Contarini family, who owned and occupied the Venetian Villa where this work was housed, is hereby announcing the birth of a son, the family heir. As Aeneas was fostered by his divine mother, so too this male heir can deliver great promise for his family in the realm of mortals.

Panofsky observers that such applications of Time = Cronus/Saturn are "symptomatic of an age-old re-interpretation of the iconography of Cronus whereby the father of the Olympians becomes Father Time."

The image at right is derived from the National Gallery's website.

Bibliography:
Langmuir, Erika. 1997. The National Gallery Companion Guide. (London: National Gallery Publications; distributed by Yale University Press) Page 232-33.