The Cupid Seller
Luigi Del Buono (fl. Florence 19th century)
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
1800 - 1899
Materials
Gouache on paper
Place of origin
Italy
Order this imageCollection
Kingston Lacy Estate, Dorset
NT 1251083
Summary
Gouache on paper, The Cupid Seller by Luigi Del Buono (fl. Florence 19th century). Inscribed Del Buono. The original painting was a fresco cut from the wall of the luxurious Villa di Arianna at Stabiae, a coastal town south of Pompeii, which depicts an older woman forcefully lifting a winged Cupid from a cage and offering it to a potential buyer. Since its rediscovery in the mid–1700s, it has inspired numerous reproductions and adaptations in diverse media. After a 1762 engraving by Carlo Nolli, The Seller of Cupids which was an illustration from Le Antichita di Ercolano.
Makers and roles
Luigi Del Buono (fl. Florence 19th century), artist Carlo Nolli (d.c.1770), engraver (printmaker)