English: Cupid

Artist: Frederick William MacMonnies (American, New York 1863–1937 New York) Date: 1898 Medium: Ivory, lapis lazuli, marble, bloodstone, bronze, silver alloy, gold, translucent enamels, wood Dimensions: 16 1/8 in. height (41 cm) x 8 3/8 in. width (21.3 cm.) x 8 1/4 in. depth (21 cm.) Classification: Sculpture Credit Line: Purchase, Heather and Brian McVeigh and David Schwartz Foundation Inc. Gifts, 2015

Along with a number of French contemporaries, Paris-based MacMonnies participated in a late-nineteenth-century revival of interest in polychromy and mixed materials for sculpture. This unique multi-material object features an intricate play of diverse media: a fanciful carved ivory cupid with enameled silver wings surmounts an elaborate base incorporating colored stones, gold, bronze, and wood. MacMonnies derived the composition from his earlier bronze statuette "Standing Cupid" (1895), drawing on Greco-Roman-inspired subject matter, a central theme in his oeuvre from the late 1880s through the 1890s. "Cupid" was designed with the expert input of several French artists, including sculptor Victor Janvier and enameler Fernand Thesmar.