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| Pietro Testa Venus submitting to the river god Serchio before 1637 drawing British Museum |
"An allegory on the Virtues of Lucca. . . . Venus kneels at the foot of the Lucchese river god, Serchio, as her son, Cupid, presents him with a quiver. Crowning Serchio are two putti, while behind him stand Minerva, who represents Fortitude, and the other cardinal virtues. To the left of Serchio are two seated nymphs, while in front of him are two putti crowning the Lucchese panther. On the right, behind Venus and Cupid, is a triumphal procession, with a cupid atop a celestial globe ('Amor vincit omnia'), carried on a chariot drawn by rearing horses and accompanied by satyrs. . . . The composition was studied in two other drawings, one in the Louvre and the other in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, and seems to have been made between the two. The purpose of the composition is unknown, but it was adapted in an etching of the Allegory in Honour of the Arrival of Cardinal Franchiti as Bishop of Lucca in March 1637."
– curator's notes from the British Museum
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| Jan de Bisschop Antique statue of Crouching Venus (location now unknown) ca. 1669-71 etching British Museum |
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| Jan de Bisschop Antique statue of Crouching Venus (location now unknown) ca. 1669-71 etching British Museum |
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| Jan de Bisschop after Francesco Salviati Antique statue of Crouching Venus (formerly in the Giustiniani Collection, Rome - location now unknown) 1669-71 etching British Museum |
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| Bartholomeus Spranger Study for Mercury, Venus and Cupid before 1611 drawing British Museum |
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| Bartholomeus Spranger Venus and Cupid before 1611 drawing British Museum |
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| Alexandre Betou after Francesco Primaticcio Venus at the Forge of Vulcan (fresco in pendentive at Fontainebleau, now lost) before 1693 etching British Museum |
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| Mattys Pool after Guercino Cupid caught in a net, surrounded by Venus, Mars and Time (Guercino's painting is now located at the National Trust property of Dunham Massey) before 1730 etching British Museum |
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| Francesco Bartolozzi after Guercino Venus and Adonis (Guercino's original drawing was at this time "in the collection of His Grace, the Duke of Argyle") 1791 etching British Museum |
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| Francesco Rosaspina after Parmigianino Venus at the Forge of Vulcan (the original Parmigianino drawing is now lost) ca. 1780-1810 etching British Museum |
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| Stefano Mulinari after drawing by Pietro da Cortona after painting by Baldassare Peruzzi Saturn, Cupid and Venus standing on clouds ca. 1760-90 etching British Museum |
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| William Blake Judgement of Paris (with Juno, Venus and Athena) ca. 1809-1817 drawing with watercolor British Museum |
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| Thomas Rowlandson after Correggio Venus with Mercury and Cupid ('The School of Love') (Correggio's painting of 1525 is in the National Gallery, London) before 1827 drawing with watercolor British Museum |
Rowlandson's version (above) of Correggio's canvas cheerfully distorts and elongates the proportions of the original figures, in accordance with the fashionable body-types of the 1820s. William Strang's late-Victorian version (below) maps the figures more circumspectly, but equally fails to render their idealized, Renaissance-style features and expressions (which resisted the 19th-century passion for domestic anecdote).
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| William Strang after Correggio Venus with Mercury and Cupid ('The School of Love') (Correggio's painting of 1525 is in the National Gallery, London) 1888 engraving British Museum |
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| Correggio Venus with Mercury and Cupid ('The School of Love') ca. 1525 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |