Why this Bizarre Painting Shows a Boy

Peeing On His Mother

The symbolism of Venus and Cupid by Lorenzo Lotto

Venus and Cupid (1520s) by Lorenzo Lotto. Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Image source The Met (open access)

This painting is brimming with symbolism. It shows Venus reclining on a rug of blue fabric in
the setting of a bower, where the goddess of Love takes shade beneath a tree.

Next to her stands her son Cupid. He is recognisable by the wings on his back and the bow slung
over his shoulder from which he shoots his arrows of love.

Curiously, Cupid is shown urinating upon his mother through a ring of myrtle.
The depiction may seem puzzling to us today, but for a 16th century viewer, a urinating child
would have been read as an augury of good fortune.

It is likely that the painting was intended as a wedding gift to a newly married couple. As a
humorous allusion to fertility, the image was an expression of hope for the marriage: that the
union would bear children.

Urinating boy
There is actually a term for images of urinating boys like this one.

Puer mingens is Latin, made up of the word puer meaning “boy” and mingens, the present
participle of the verb mingere which means “to urinate”.

Detail of ‘Venus and Cupid’ (1520s) by Lorenzo Lotto. Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan
Museum of Art. Image source The Met (open access)

The meaning of such representations may range from boyish innocence to erotic virility and
masculine bravado.
In this painting, Cupid is shown urinating towards Venus’ belly, undoubtedly suggestive of the
act of procreation.

The motif of the puer mingens dates back to at least Classical Rome. It was revived during the
Renaissance as the use of allegorical symbolism became fashionable. It appears in numerous
works of painting and sculpture. The interpretation of a peeing boy as a symbol of fertility and
fecundity comes from the fact that Latin verbs for urination were often used to connote the
sexual act of ejaculation. In this case of Venus and Cupid, puer mingens is meant to symbolise an
act of impregnation.

A painting full of symbolism

It may seem perplexing that Cupid is shown symbolically impregnating his own mother, but in
Classical myth the figures of Cupid and Venus were treated as manifestations of love, both erotic
and “sacred”. To combine them into a single image would have been read not as an act of incest
but as an intellectual blending of allegory.

Venus stands in for the bride — her features may even have been based on the bride herself. Her
headdress, with the tiara, veil and earring, is typical of the Venetian brides of the 16th century.
The transparent band across her chest, a garment worn by Roman brides, is known as a strophion
or bust band. The knotted ribbons around her wrists are emblems of love, symbols drawn from
Renaissance poetry.

Cupid suggests the fruitful possibilities of the marriage union. The garland of myrtle he holds is
a reference to marriage because brides wore a myrtle wreath, whilst the incense burner attached
to it adds a touch of opulence to the scene, perfuming the bower with scent.
Venus and Cupid (1520s) by Lorenzo Lotto. Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Image source The Met (open access)

The Lorenzo Lotto painting is replete with symbolic references that add further resonance to the
idea of a successful marriage and childbirth. The ivy that wraps around the tree in the
background is symbolic of evergreen love and fidelity due to the way it clings.

Above Venus’ head is a large conch shell, a replacement for the open clam shell that is Venus’s
normal attribute — note the suggestive shape of the shell’s opening.
Detail of ‘Venus and Cupid’ (1520s) by Lorenzo Lotto. Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan
Museum of Art. Image source The Met (open access)

Meanwhile, hidden among the folds of the blue fabric is a rose and a snake, which combined
together offer complementary symbols of hope and warning.

The rose was Venus’ flower as well as an essential feature of classical and Renaissance wedding
ceremonies, whilst the snake warns against jealousy — conceived here as a hidden yet deadly
danger.
Detail of ‘Venus and Cupid’ (1520s) by Lorenzo Lotto. Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan
Museum of Art. Image source The Met (open access)

Finally, the stick that lies across the front of the blue rug is the instrument with which Cupid was
punished when misusing his arrows. In this painting, the stick has been laid to rest, but like the
snake, it lies nearby to warn of misdemeanours in the marriage: notice the withered rose that sits
at the left-most end of the stick as a caution against envy, infidelity or anything that might turn
the marriage sour.

Detail of ‘Venus and Cupid’ (1520s) by Lorenzo Lotto. Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan
Museum of Art. Image source The Met (open access)

This is certainly a painting with a pronounced theme, one in which the beautifully observed
details only increase the unexpected aspect of the urinating boy.

As a painting offered to commemorate a marriage, it stands as a fascinating insight into 16th

century symbolism as well as a pointed lesson in the values of marriage.