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Cupid Secretly Drawing an Arrow
Gilles-Lambert Godecharle (Belgian, 1750–1835)1807
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
This clay model is a maquette for a sculpture in limestone more than three feet tall, entitled <em>Cupid Disguised, Hiding Under a Veil</em>. The motif is borrowed from the Marlborough cameo (an ancient Roman cameo now at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, inv. no. 99.101) that was a source of inspiration for neoclassical artists. The gem illustrates the wedding of Cupid and Psyche—shown as veiled children with protruding wings—from which Godecharle extracted the single figure of Cupid and, instead, depicted him in ambush.
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Details
- Title: Cupid Secretly Drawing an Arrow
- Creator: Gilles-Lambert Godecharle (Belgian, 1750–1835)
- Date Created: 1807
- Physical Dimensions: Overall: 22.8 cm (9 in.)
- Provenance: Joseph Henry Fitzhenry [1836-1913], London, (Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Fitzhenry sale, Feb. 18-21, 1914, no. 499, sold to Lemay), Lemay, Marius Paulme [1863-1928], Paris, (Paulme sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, May 15, 1929, no. 320, possibly sold to Comte de Rivaud), Possibly Comte de Rivaud, (Sale, Palais Galliera, Paris, Dec. 6, 1972, no. 49, (Kunsthandlung Julius Böhler, Munich, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Type: Sculpture
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1977.72
- Medium: terracotta
- Inscriptions: inscribed on the edge of the base at right: "Godecharle" and "1807."
- Fun Fact: Cupid traipses daintily on rose blossoms, ready to shoot his love-filled arrow at an unsuspecting victim.
- Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Culture: Belgium, Brussels, 19th century
- Credit Line: Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund
- Collection: Mod Euro - Sculpture 1800-1960
- Accession Number: 1977.72
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