Bacchus, Ceres en Venus 'Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus'

Venus sits at the center of the composition, flanked by Bacchus, who holds a bunch of grapes, and Ceres, who carries a cornucopia overflowing with fruit and a sickle. At the bottom left, Cupid reaches upward toward the grapes while Venus gazes upward in a state of languor. The scene illustrates the physical necessity of food and wine to sustain the fires of love and passion.

Based on a line from the Roman playwright Terence, this allegory was a popular subject in Northern Mannerism used to explore the interdependence of physical sustenance and human emotion. Within the Western esoteric and philosophical tradition, it reflects the Neoplatonic concern with how the material realm and the bodily humors directly influence the soul's capacity for desire and affection.