Sandro Botticelli, 'Venus and Mars', about 1485

Venus, the goddess of Love, watches over her sleeping lover, Mars, the god of War.

Strange creatures called satyrs, half-boy and half-goat, play boisterously with Mars' armour. One crawls mischievously inside his discarded breastplate, while another trumpets through a conch shell right into Mars' ear. But nothing can disturb the sleep of Venus' exhausted lover.

This enchanting painting was made by the 15th-century Italian artist Sandro Botticelli. It was probably painted for a rich Florentine family known to the artist and was intended to decorate a bedroom.

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