School of Antwerp, 17th Century

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The copper panel has some minor deformations to the upper right and lower right corners, there is paint loss visible here. Pitting across the paint layer is visible leading to some minor paint losses, upper left and right, and there is some minor restoration to these paint losses. Otherwise, in a good untouched state. The removal of the thick discoloured varnish would improve the tonality. Offered in a modern gilt painted frame in good condition."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The title of the painting, a theme popular with Flemish artists in the seventeenth century, is a quotation from the play The Eunuch, (IV:732) by the Roman comic playwright Terence. The phrase implies that without the nourishment of food and wine, love will grow cold:

Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus
Ipsa Venus venerisque puer torpedine frigent
si genialis abest Bacchus et alma Ceres.

(Without Bacchus and Ceres, Venus is freezing.
Venus herself and her son are lethargic and frozen
if cordial Bacchus and kind Ceres are missing.)