Cupid Carving the Arch

around 1610

Oil on canvas, 140 x 87 cm

Price on request

The depiction is an extraordinarily faithful copy of the „Bow Carving Cupid“ by Parmigianino, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. [1] Heintz has kept to all the details of the model. Parmigianino’s painting, which became famous shortly after it was painted in 1535, was long sought by Emperor Rudolf II, but it was not until 1603 that Philip III agreed to send the work to Prague.

Already in the collection of Emperor Rudolf II in the first decade of the 17th century the original was exhibited with its copy by Heintz. Rudolf’s court painter Joseph Heintz the Elder had made a copy after Parmigianinos‘ Arch Carving Cupid. The two paintings hung side by side for a long time in the Imperial Treasury in Vienna, where they were considered a special sight. Peter Paul Rubens also created a free copy.

Two large-format copies and a small-format version on copper exist from the hand of Heintz.

[1] Parmigianino (1504-1540), Arch Carving Cupid, between 1534-1539, oil on wood, 135.5 cm x 65 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Joseph Heintz the Elder (1564-1609), Arch Carving Cupid, after 1603, oil on wood, 135 x 64 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.