Sebastiano Ricci

Sebastiano Ricci brought light and colour back to Venetian painting. His airy compositions, with luminous skies and graceful figures, drew on Veronese and helped set the stage for Tiepolo and the Rococo.

Born in Belluno, he trained in Venice and worked all over Italy, then in Vienna, where he painted a ceiling at Schönbrunn, and in England, where he painted the apse of the chapel at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea. He also painted for Florence’s Palazzo Pitti. He later settled back in Venice and worked there until his death. His paintings are in the Uffizi, the Louvre and the Kunsthistorisches Museum.

Venus and Cupid shows his soft, bright palette and easy movement.