Cupid’s dazzling arrival, Bridget Riley’s rollercoaster, and a duet between two masters – The Week in Art | Art and design

Exhibition of the week

Cupid Caravaggio
The shock of the old hits London as Caravaggio’s most confrontational and mind-blowing masterpiece goes on display for free. Prepare to be amazed and shocked.
Wallace Collection, London, from 26 November to 12 April

also appear

Bridget Riley
One of Britain’s greatest ever artists takes you on a rollercoaster ride in a show that gives Margate a new dreamland. Read the review.
Turner Contemporary, Margate, from 22 November to 4 May

HowardIna Bendel
The beauty and fury of Bendel’s paintings and political art bear witness to the United States.
White Cube Bermondsey, London, until 18 January

Turner and Constable
After his 250th birthday celebrations, JMW Turner must face his great rival once again.
Tate Britain, London, from 27 November to 12 April

Lewis Miller
Paintings inspired by dollhouses create a realistic and dream-like world.
The Modern Institute, Glasgow, until 14 January

Picture of the week

A 1940 self-portrait by famous Mexican artist Frida Kahlo has sold for $54.7 million (£41.8 million) at an art auction in New York, marking the highest new sale price for a work by any artist. The painting The Dream (Bed), which depicts Kahlo sleeping in a bed with a smiling skeleton wrapped in dynamite on the canopy above it, was sold Thursday evening at Sotheby’s Surrealist Art auction. But as Freedamania reaches new heights, we wonder where its “lost” masterpieces are? Read the full story.

What we learned

A Norfolk man found an old Rembrandt painting in a drawer

Visitors to a new Italian art gallery should be prepared to climb 7,546 feet

A painting by Gustav Klimt, stolen by the Nazis, sold for $236.4 million

Maggie Hambling and Sarah Lucas are friends, but their art doesn’t mix well

Wes Anderson’s archives are as meticulously detailed as his films

Harold Offeh’s new show includes impersonations of R&B and disco stars

Edmund de Waal is obsessed with the unsettling potter Axel Salto

The Austrian sociologist, who died in 1945, had a major influence on pop iconography

Young Turner drew an astonishing amount of pornographic drawings

Masterpiece of the week

Cupid complains to Venus by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1529

When Caravaggio painted Cupid, there was already a long tradition of Renaissance artists depicting the ancient god of love in provocative ways. Parmigianino painted a naked teenage Cupid sharpening his bow, and Bronzino depicted him pleasuring his mother, Venus. This is one of several paintings in which Cranach depicts the mischievous god as a naughty boy who was stung by bees while stealing honey. The meaning is not very precise: love is painful. However, it has a darker sting than we can give it credit for, because Cranach was a religious fanatic and Martin Luther’s best man. Therefore, it is sin that suffers. But, in a bold twist, Cranach paints Venus in an exciting and seductive way. So, you too are stung by his art, if this nude happens to stir up any wrong thoughts.
National Gallery, London

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