Amor neemt de gedaante van Ascanius aan: een ‘nieuwe’ interpretatie van een schilderij van Nicolaas Verkolje

In 2011 the Rijksmuseum Twenthe in Enschede organised the exhibition Nicolaas Verkolje (1673-1746). Defluwelen hand / The velvet touch. One of the masterpieces in the show was a painting from the Musee des Beaux-Arts in Carcassonne which, as we know from auction catalogues, has been called Venus and the sleeping Cupid since the late eighteenth century (fig. 1). Respecting the tradition, that title and interpretation were adopted in the exhibition and catalogue. However, when a classics teacher at the Stedelijk Gymnasium in Nijmegen saw the painting illustrated in the catalogue he discussed the subject with his pupils. Together they concluded that the painting actually shows Cupid disguised as Ascanius, which is based on the story of Dido and Aeneas in book 1 of Virgil's Aeneid. The sleeping boy is not Cupid, but Ascanius; the standing child is Cupid who is being groomed by the Graces. Some anomalies in the painting now fell into place. The subject is exceptional in Dutch art history. Some 40 years before Verkolje, Gerard Hoet depicted the subject in his series of paintings of the love story of Dido and Aeneas in Slangenburg Castle near Doetinchem (fig. 2), and he may have used Vondel's translation, in which some details were added to the original story. Verkolje must have known Hoet's work, or a drawing based on it, and probably elaborated on Hoet's scene even further. The only other known depiction of the subject is a print by Gerard de Lairesse (fig. 3) from a slightly earlier date than Hoet's paintings. Lairesse, though, chose a completely different solution and stayed much closer to Virgil's version of the story.