Venus, left of the centre, with her body turned slightly left, looks over her left shoulder into a mirror held by a full-length Cupid on the right, who in turn looks out over his shoulder at the spectator.

This painting is in good condition and its technique suggests that it is by a Netherlandish artist. Titian painted, or produced in his workshop, several versions of this general type, with minor variations in the clothing or jewellery of Venus and in the number and actions of the children. The existence of a second copy with a composition very close to this one, signed Gilles Coignet and dated 1579 (Gemaldegalerie, Kassel), seems to provide evidence of a lost original, different in design from any of those now attributed to Titian.