Is There An Art Historian In The House?

[drplokta]

Or can anyone else tell me why Sir Joshua Reynolds painted a work entitled "Venus Chiding Cupid for Learning to Cast Accounts"? Which is hanging in Kenwood House, just north of Hampstead Heath. And yes, it's exactly what the title implies -- Cupid holding what looks suspiciously like a spreadsheet (pre-computer variety) is being told off by Venus. Which begs a whole host of questions, like why Cupid was considering such a drastic career change and what exactly Venus objects to about accountancy.

Comments

[flickgc.livejournal.com]

That is really really odd...

[redbird]

Absent the title, the small reproduction I found by googling doesn't make it at all clear that she's chiding him--though that is very clearly a spreadsheet.

My only thought is that she might have objected, not to accountancy per se, but to the idea that she'd have to find a new assistant.

[supergee.livejournal.com]

This means that Robert Sheckley's "The Accountant" is ALL TRUE.

Agents....

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

Cupid is her pimp....

Re: Agents....

[sbisson.livejournal.com]

Actually he was her son...

[headgardener.livejournal.com]

'Casting up accounts' was, according to Miss Heyer, C18 slang for what we Aussies, according to Mr Humphreys, refer to as chundering, taking a technicolour yawn, going for the big spit, etc...

If a spreadsheet appears in his painting, then Mr Reynolds was making a pictorial double entendre about the precocious cherub.