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.

Pietre Dure is a process of creating works in which pieces of hard, polished stone of varying shapes are set into marble or another hard surface to form a pattern.

During the first half of the 17th century, the cabinet-on-stand became an important furniture form in Italy; it was soon imitated in both western and northern Europe.

The following essay is from the 1996 publication Gods, Men, and Heroes: Ancient Art at the Dallas Museum of Art.

The following essay is from the 1996 publication Gods, Men, and Heroes: Ancient Art at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Marquetry refers to the technique in which small pieces of specially shaped wood, or sometimes other materials such as ivory, are incorporated into a suface of decorative veneer.