Cupid, the little god of love and son of Venus, has stolen a honeycomb from a hollow in the tree behind him. The bees have swarmed out angrily and started to sting him. His mother tells him he is only getting what he deserves: his love arrows sometimes also cause pain. He had been looking forward to the sweet taste of the honey, but now discovers that pleasure often comes with pain attached. Cranach signed this picture with his device (a kind of personal logo) of a winged snake. It is visible on the large stone under Venus’ right foot.

Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553)

Cranach’s name comes from Kronach, the town in Germany where he was born. He is called ‘Cranach the Elder’ to distinguish him from his two sons who were also painters, one also called Lucas. He worked at the court of the Electors of Saxony where he met Martin Luther. He was one of the principal artists of the Reformation. He also made prints, and painted portraits and religious works as well as mythological subjects such as this one.

Title: Mars and Venus
Artist: Botticelli
Medium: egg tempera and oil on wood
Date: about 1485

Mars, the god of war, sleeps heavily. Venus, the goddess of love, is dressed and wide awake. The shell on the right and the green sea in the distance may refer to her birth at sea. Her husband Vulcan the blacksmith, god of fire, is not present, but child satyrs play with the armour he has made for Mars. The shape of the picture suggests that it was probably made to furnish a room, probably the backboard of a bench or a chest. The subject of a man and woman together would have made it suitable as a wedding gift.

Sandro Botticelli (c.1445–1510)

Botticelli worked on three major frescoes in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican from 1481–2. But most of his working life was spent in Florence, where he became very well known, working for the powerful Medici family. Today he is best known for his large mythological paintings, like the Birth of Venus in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Title: The Adoration of the Kings
Artist: Gossaert
Medium: oil on wood
Date: between 1500 and 1515

This painting was probably the altarpiece in a church in what is now Belgium. It shows the arrival in Bethlehem of the three kings and their servants who have come to visit the baby Jesus and to bring him their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. The story is told in the Bible (Matthew, 2:11). The kings were traditionally supposed to represent all people on earth, so they are often shown as being of different ages and races. The oldest is Caspar, who kneels before the child. He has presented a gold chalice and his name is inscribed on the lid. Balthasar is the black king on the left; his name can be found in the inscription around his crown (the artist has also signed his name here). Melchior is on the right behind Caspar. In the far distance, on a hillside, shepherds are told by angels of the birth of Jesus. Joseph, wearing red, stands on he left behind Mary, near a doorway through which we can just make out a face which may be a self-portrait of the artist.

The picture is painted in great detail: the artist has used thin layers of oil paint (glazes) to build up the rich textures of velvet.

Jan Gossaert (active 1503, died 1532)

Jan Gossaert was born in Hainault in what is now Belgium. He painted and engraved religious and mythological subjects as well as portraits. While working for the Duke of Burgundy and his family, he travelled to Rome and other European cities.

Title: Saint George and the Dragon
Artist: Uccello
Medium: oil on canvas
Date: c. 1460

The story of St George was written down in a medieval book about the lives of the saints, called The Golden Legend. Artists would often refer to this book when commissioned to paint the saints or events from their lives. In this painting Uccello juxtaposes several moments from the story: St George pierces the dragon’s eye with his lance, and the princess has already attached her belt around its neck in order to lead it back to the city. Uccello may be showing us that the moment is a special and sacred one by painting a strange whirl of cloud in the sky above St George. Uccello was one of the Florentine pioneers of perspective: the odd little grassy squares which narrow and flatten as they recede from us are like a tiled floor in perspective. The artist is trying to create an illusion of depth in a two-dimensional painting.

Paolo Uccello (1397–1475)

Uccello is the Italian word for ‘bird’, and was a nickname given to this artist who apparently loved to paint wildlife. His seems to have been very interested in perspective, and he made many drawings of objects in which the perspective was carefully and mathematically worked out. He spent some years in Venice, but worked mainly in Florence for rich patrons, including the Catholic Church and the powerful Medici family.

Title: Judith and Holofernes
Artist: Liss
Medium: oil on canvas
Date: c. 1622

This dramatic painting shows a moment from the Old Testament book of Judith. The heroine, Judith, has just cut off the head of the enemy leader Holofernes; the blood is still spurting from his neck. Movement is also suggested in Judith’s pose: she has made a huge physical effort to decapitate this man, but she still has time to turn her head towards us, the audience. This is a strong image, and the fact that it was presumably made to order suggests that there was a demand in the seventeenth century for bloody and violent scenes.

Johann Liss (c. 1597–1629/30)

Liss was born in Germany but worked in Venice, Rome, Amsterdam, Haarlem and Antwerp. In all these places he learned from the work of other artists. His large-scale paintings with dramatic diagonal movements towards the viewer are typical of what is known as the ‘baroque’ style in art.