GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Originally set just above an fireplace in a royal bedroom, Charles-Antoine Coypel’s painting is playful on two levels. Forging arrows, of course, required the assistance of flames, while “fire” referred metaphorically to the desires Cupid sparked. We see atop the composition a levitating Amour who holds an arrow at the ready and points to his left. In aiming the weapon, he draws our attention to a shadowy figure lurking behind a tree. The size, muscularity, dark skin, and pointy ears identify the intruder as a satyr, a traditional image of animal desire. The satyr appears unaware that he has been spotted, for, with tilted head and eyes cast to his right, he directs his attention downward across the composition toward two infants handling a slender arrow. Here is the only little girl in the scene, shown wingless and with flowers in her hair.
She and a little boy cupid appear infatuated, as he grasps the arrow’s slender shaft and she touches its tiny tip. Depicted as infants, they can pretend innocence because they are presumed not to understand their urges. Yet a satyr cannot hide his nature, and with a sideways glance appears to calculate a next move, while the infatuated infants remain blind to his presence. Is the satyr here an external threat to the cupid couple or merely the emblem of a sexual desire that has already grabbed them, and is represented wittily through their attention to an arrow held upright?
Adapted from
Mary D. Sheriff, "Love Hurts: On the Pleasures and Perils of Love in Eighteenth-Century French Art," in French Art of the Eighteenth Century: The Michael L. Rosenberg Lecture Series at the Dallas Museum of Art, ed. Heather MacDonald (Dallas: Dallas Museum of Art and the Michael L. Rosenberg Foundation, distributed by New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2016), 38-51.
NOTES
c. 1715-1720
Checked Piction
TERM- Venus appears as a term, a statue whose lower parts end in a sheath. Terms functioned as boundary markers, (45)
Artist/designers
Coypel, Charles-Antoine (French, 1694-1752)
Cultures
Geography
Place of origin: France (nation): TGN: 1000070
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
AUDIO ASSETS
VIDEO ASSETS
IMAGE ASSETS
WEB RESOURCES
- Philadelphia Museum of Art~View a self portrait of Charles-Antoine Coypel.
- The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles~Read a biography of Coypel from the Getty.
- DMA.org~Listen to a lecture about Coypel's painting from the Dallas Museum of Art's Michael L. Rosenberg series on 18th-century French art.
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
FUN FACTS
- Both Charles-Antoine Coypel and his father Antoine served as premier peintre du roi (first painter) to the French court.
TEACHING IDEAS
RULES
Apply to objects where number equals 2013.32.FA
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General Description
Originally set just above an fireplace in a royal bedroom, Charles-Antoine Coypel’s painting is playful on two levels. Forging arrows, of course, required the assistance of flames, while “fire” referred metaphorically to the desires Cupid sparked. We see atop the composition a levitating Amour who holds an arrow at the ready and points to his left. In aiming the weapon, he draws our attention to a shadowy figure lurking behind a tree. The size, muscularity, dark skin, and pointy ears identify the intruder as a satyr, a traditional image of animal desire. The satyr appears unaware that he has been spotted, for, with tilted head and eyes cast to his right, he directs his attention downward across the composition toward two infants handling a slender arrow. Here is the only little girl in the scene, shown wingless and with flowers in her hair.
She and a little boy cupid appear infatuated, as he grasps the arrow’s slender shaft and she touches its tiny tip. Depicted as infants, they can pretend innocence because they are presumed not to understand their urges. Yet a satyr cannot hide his nature, and with a sideways glance appears to calculate a next move, while the infatuated infants remain blind to his presence. Is the satyr here an external threat to the cupid couple or merely the emblem of a sexual desire that has already grabbed them, and is represented wittily through their attention to an arrow held upright?
Adapted from
Mary D. Sheriff, "Love Hurts: On the Pleasures and Perils of Love in Eighteenth-Century French Art," in French Art of the Eighteenth Century: The Michael L. Rosenberg Lecture Series at the Dallas Museum of Art, ed. Heather MacDonald (Dallas: Dallas Museum of Art and the Michael L. Rosenberg Foundation, distributed by New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2016), 38-51.
Fun Facts
- Both Charles-Antoine Coypel and his father Antoine served as premier peintre du roi (first painter) to the French court.
Archival Resources
Web Resources
- Philadelphia Museum of Art~View a self portrait of Charles-Antoine Coypel.
- The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles~Read a biography of Coypel from the Getty.
- DMA.org~Listen to a lecture about Coypel's painting from the Dallas Museum of Art's Michael L. Rosenberg series on 18th-century French art.
Notes
c. 1715-1720
Checked Piction
TERM- Venus appears as a term, a statue whose lower parts end in a sheath. Terms functioned as boundary markers, (45)
Artist/designers
Coypel, Charles-Antoine (French, 1694-1752)
Cultures
Geography
Place of origin: France (nation): TGN: 1000070
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
AUDIO ASSETS
VIDEO ASSETS
rules
Apply To
Objects
number
Equals
2013.32.FA
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