Caravaggio's Cupid

at The Wallace Collection 

26 November 2025 - 12 April 2026 

The Wallace Collection is exhibiting a single painting, Caravaggio's Victorious Cupid, on loan from the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin: it has never been seen in the UK before. It was painted for Caravaggio's great patron, Vincenzo Giustiniani, and will be seen with two of the classical sculptures formerly in Giustiniani's collection, in order to give it a relevant context. 

But of course, so much of the Wallace Collection is about love - notably that of King Louis XVI for his mistress, Madame de Pompadour - so Cupid will be very much at home.

We shall consider the Berlin loan in relationship to Caravaggio's career as a whole, and especially to his works painted for - or collected by - Giustiniani. We will also see how it relates to the other images of love within the Wallace Collection as we know it today.