Menacing Love: A Statue by Falconet

One of the most famous statues from eighteenth-century France is the mischevious-looking marble cupid of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. It was made in 1757 by Etienne-Maurice Falconet for Madame de Pompadour, the French King's mistress. The telling sculpture soon acquired its present title L'Amour Mena ant (Menacing Love), partly due to two mysterious lines by Voltaire which were inscribed on its pedastal. In this Rijksmuseum dossier, which is entirely devoted to Falconet's remarkable work of art, the significance and original function of the Cupid, its sculptor and its artistic ideas, as well as his famous patron receive much attention. The wanderings of the statue (from France via Russia to Amsterdam), the history of its reputation (its fortuna critica) and the many copies and replicas made of it are also dealt with.