(Amsterdam circa 1515/20–1568)
The punishment of Amor,
inscribed at the lower edge: CUR NON VICISSIM URIS AMA[N]TES IMPROBE AMOR,
oil on panel, 145.5 x 93.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Royal House of Bourbon, Spain (according to literature);
Federico Zeri Collection, Mentana (Rome);
Private European collection

Exhibited:
Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Fiamminghi a Roma: 1508–1608,
24 February - 21 May 1995;
Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, 16 June - 10 September 1995, no. 207

Literature:
N. Dacos, Le retable de l’église Saint-Denise à Liège: Lambert Suavius, et non Lambert Lombard, in: Oud Holland, 1992, vol. 106, p. 112, fig. 16;
N. Dacos, in: Fiamminghi a Roma: 1508-1608. Artisti dei Paesi Bassi e del Principato di Liegi a Roma durante il Rinascimento, ed. by A. C. Liedekerke, exhibition catalogue, Milan 1995, p. 284, cat. no. 207;
N. Dacos, De Perin del Vaga à Lambert Suavius: les histoires d’Amour et Psyché, in: Revue belge d’archéologie et d’histoire de l’art, vol. 72, 2003,
p. 105

The present painting may have belonged to the collection of Charles IV Bourbon, King of Spain, together with the Deposition of Christ by Rosso Fiorentino, now conserved in Boston (inv. 58.527). At the time of his death in Naples in 1819 the King’s collection included 688 paintings, these were sent to Spain within the following year and then they were inherited first by the Infante Francisco de Paula, and subsequently by the Infante Sébastian Gabriel Borbón y Braganza (see A. Perera, Carlos IV, Mecenas y coleccionista de obras de arte, in: Arte Español, 1958, vol. 22, 1, pp. 8-35). It is unclear how the painting subsequently entered the collection of Federico Zeri; in 1995 it was exhibited at Milan (see literature).

The subject of the present composition is stated in the inscription: ‘CUR NON VICISSIM URIS AMA[N]TES IMPROBE AMOR’ [‘Why, mischievous Cupid, do you not inflame both lovers at the same time’]. The theme of Love punished was appreciated during the Renaissance and Mannerist period, however, there appear to be no known iconographic precedents for the present rendering of the subject. Indeed, Venus was usually the protagonist responsible for the education of her son, and is often shown arresting the flight of Cupid, or beating him, but without resorting to the deployment of garlic fronds.

According to Nicole Dacos (see literature 1992) this painting belongs to the most Roman-inspired moment of Lambert Suavius’ production, where he employed classical examples for the design of the two protagonists’ bodies: the Torso Belvedere served as a model for the mature man, while one of the children of Laocoön served for the contorted movements and the expression of terror of the youth Cupid. The latter facial type is frequently encountered in the productions of Suavius, as seen for example in the engraving of Saint Matthew. Here it is possible to recognise the way in which the mouth is stylised and the forehead of the figure is covered with locks of curly hair.

Dacos (see literature 1995) suggests that the manner in which the musculature of the figures is rendered may point to a contact, during the artist’s presumed sojourn at Rome, with Baccio Bandinelli. Designs on the column in the background were inspired by Roman sarcophagi and the hieroglyphs on obelisks.

Lambert Zutman, better known by his latinised name Suavius, was a Flemish artist active around the middle of the sixteenth century between Holland and northern Germany. He was celebrated especially as an engraver. Documentary sources do not record a journey to Italy, even though this is highly probable and has often been suggested because of the strong classical character apparent in his work.