103 probably modelled on the basis of prints in the emblem book Amorum emblemata (figs. 2–4) by Otto van Veen, which was first published in 1608.10 Stylistic similarities to extant paintings by these artists would still have been clearly apparent in their translations of van Veen’s prints into the medium of painting.11 Assuming this conjecture to be correct, little consideration has so far been given to existing Cupid images found in different functional contexts.12 For example, there are paintings with thirteen depictions of love emblems integrated into an Antwerp cabinet,13 as well as a series of 36 paintings as part of the interior décor of the Bunte Kammer (Colourful Chamber) in the manor house of Kohöved (now Ludwigsburg) near Eckernförde, which were painted by an unknown Flemish artist and contemporary of Vermeer after prints from Van Veen’s emblem book (fig. 5).14 Vermeer would probably not have seen those pictures. Nevertheless, they attest to a certain popularity of such reproductions after the emblem book, which went through numerous editions. Whereas in Ludwigsburg the whole spectrum of possible iconographic images after Van Veen’s Cupid motifs is laid out for the elevated discourse of the landed aristocracy, Vermeer has taken up only a few of those motifs in his four known background Cupid pictures. Moreover, he has adapted them: In Vermeer’s work, unlike Van Veen’s, Cupid, equipped with a bow, is depicted standing on an upturned mask, with another lying on the ground at his feet along with a quiver of arrows. This quiver motif appears in several engravings by Van Veen. Vermeer’s London Cupid holds up an unidentified card in his left hand. In Van Veen, it is, in one case, a number board showing the number 1, and, in another, the ring of Gyges that Cupid is shown holding in this posture. Given the existence of these variations on the Cupid motif, it seems questionable whether Vermeer had recourse to only one Cupid painting or sculpture; perhaps he was also familiar with the Van Veen book or knew of other painters’ adaptations of the prints in the emblem book, and took inspiration from them in order to vary the attributes of his Cupids. The painter must have been aware of the emblematic, iconographic context of the Cupids with their different attributes when he incorporated the Cupid pictures, which are by no means modest in size, into the background of his interiors.15 Vermeer paintings in “kastjes” Another consideration derives from the knowledge that Jacob Abrahamsz. Dissius, who was married to Juffr. Magdalena van Ruijven, daughter of the Vermeer collector’s couple Pieter Claesz. van Ruijven and his wife Maria de Knuijt, owned three Vermeer paintings in ‘kastjes’ – as is evident from the post- mortem inventory of his estate drawn up in April 1683.16 Specifically, it is recorded that at an auction Fig. 5 Unknown Flemish artist, Cupid holds up the ring of Gyges and steps on a mask, around 1670, oil on oak, Bunte Kammer im Herrenhaus Ludwigsburg bei Eckernförde, picture no. L 29
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