Trois Amours dont un tient une flèche (Three Loves, one of which holds an arrow), from Premiere Livre de Groupes d'Enfans (First Book of Groups of Children)
Original title: Trois Amours dont un tient une flèche (Three Loves, one of which holds an arrow), from Premiere Livre de Groupes d'Enfans (First Book of Groups of Children)
kurzbeschreibung
Where related putti prints in the series settle for calm posing, Pierre Alexandre Aveline's "Trois Amours dont un tient une flèche" builds its energy from a restless game with arrows. Three floating child figures engage one another here. The subject belongs to the series "Premiere Livre de Groupes d'Enfans" and survives as an etching with engraving. No firm year of production is recorded; stylistically the sheet sits within the French eighteenth century.
Description
Across a cloudy space hatched with fine strokes, three naked winged putti drift. The putto on the left carries an arrowhead and draws back to throw it. The middle figure grips an arrow and throws an arm around the companion on the right. That one turns his head back toward the left, an arrow in his hand as well. Scraps of cloth flutter around the bodies, and the overlapping of arms and legs keeps the arrangement under constant tension.
Context
Aveline published the sheet within a run of child groups of the kind sought after in eighteenth-century Paris as decorative models. The handling of the figures betrays the influence of Jean-Baptiste Greuze, whose children and putti were widely known. Prints of this sort often appeared in collected volumes and served painters and craftsmen alike as reference material.
Impact
A cheerful, playful mood rises from the putti's hovering, carried by the soft hatching and the evenly spread light. The loose grouping gives the sheet something dance-like, almost weightless. With no colour, the drawn line and the small differences between the poses come forward more strongly.
Technique
Etching and engraving interlock here, allowing both delicate lines and precise hatching. The cloud zone is suggested with short, loosened strokes, while the putti are worked out with more volume. The image was printed on paper; the plate measures 21.4 x 27.7 cm.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)