ABSTRACT
Emblem 29 of van Veen's Amorum emblemata shows Cupid in contemplation. Resting on his bow on a forest path, the god of love is watching a bear lick its cub. The accompanying verses explain the emblem's motto: "Time gradually completes a neglected love." In the Early Modern period, the story was known in the context of both love imagery and art literature. In the latter, the story of the she-bear was regarded as a metaphor for the arduous task of writing and revising a text. In the early sixteenth century, Titian used it for his impresa Natura potentior ars to represent the act of perfecting nature through art. The Emblemata amorum, as a whole, are well known in emblem studies and art historiography as a junction of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century love imagery. La Retorica delle Puttane presents prostitution as a cycle of erotic seduction and the fulfillment of sexual desire.
