Cupid Carving His Bow (fragment)

We have an account of the making of this statue, by Duquesnoy’s biographer Joachim von Sandrart, a friend of the artist. In his life of Duquesnoy, the biographer tells us that with this figure the artist, who was famous for his statues of children and had previously worked mainly in clay and wax, wanted to demonstrate his mastery of working in marble. The Cupid was widely noted, but for a long time no buyer could be found. At last, Sandrart was able to sell it to Amsterdam merchant Lucas van Uffen. After his death, the statue was acquired by the Amsterdam city council and presented to Princess Amalie of Orange, who had it placed in her pleasure garden at The Hague. From there it passed to Brandenburg, where it is recorded in 1689 in the inventory of the Elector’s Kunstkammer. The marble figure was badly damaged in the Second World War, and is now only a fragment.