3-057-428 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The planet Venus and lovers, c1535. Venus, personification of love and pleasure, rides across the sky, holding the blindfold Cupid who aims an arrow at a winged heart. Below are lovers, relaxing in a garden, who come under her sphere of planetary influence. Some play music, read books, or stroll in the grounds, while others bathe naked in a pool. A favourite motif among medieval and Renaissance illustrators were the areas of life thought to be under the special control of each planet.