Lavinia, Countess Spencer as Juno

Richard Cosway

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Cosway here compliments Lavinia Spencer by awarding her the attributes of Juno, including a tiara and peacock. Love is evoked by Cupid who delivers a heart dangling from a ribbon. The daughter of Charles Bingham, 1st Earl of Lucan, the sitter's beauty and intelligence attracted George Spencer, Viscount Althorp and, though she lacked a suitable dowry, the marriage was approved by the groom's parents. Cupid's presence refers to that love match, while the evocation of Juno, protectress of childbirth and domesticity, refers to the couple's twenty-seven year marriage and nine children.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art