Serraino, Tatyana Kalaydjian
ABSTRACT: It is hard to ignore the satyr-like mask that ogles Venus and her son in Jacopo da Pontormo’s Venus and Cupid (1532-34) (Fig. 1), a painting based on a lost cartoon by Michelangelo (Fig. 2). Partly obscured by this mask, a more impassive mask faces the opposing direction, as if deliberately to evade the erotic interaction between the incestuous couple. Michelangelo was the first to introduce the motif of masks accompanying the goddess of love and her son, a motif that was soon replicated and elaborated upon by a number of sixteenth century artists. The masks themselves have received little attention in scholarly literature; they have typically been dismissed as symbols of love’s deceit. An explanation of how Michelangelo’s use of two masks accompanying Venus and Cupid was meant to be interpreted by the painting’s contemporary Florentine audience will argue for a more complex reading, and will question whether the masks were simply symbols of a single idea.
