Venus Urging Cupid to Shoot his Arrow at Pluto

Unknown artist

Venus, the goddess of love, urges her son Cupid to shoot his arrow at Pluto, ruler of the underworld. Pluto thus becomes inflamed with love for Proserpine, the daughter of a god, whom he carries off to his dark underworld kingdom. The drawing served as a model for an engraving by Crispijn van de Passe the Younger. This engraving was part of a series of illustrations for Ovid’s Metamorphoses.