Edmé Bouchardon | Cupid cutting his bow from the club of Hercules, 1750

Cupid cutting his bow from the club of Hercules (L'Amour se taillant un arc dans la massue d'Hercule) is a marble statue created by the sculptor Edmé Bouchardon (French sculptor, 1698-1762 in 1750 and currently preserved at the Musée du Louvre.

Born at Chaumont, Edmé Bouchardon became the pupil of Guillaume Coustou and gained the Prix de Rome in 1722.

Resisting the barocchetto tendency of the day he was classic in his taste, pure and chaste, always correct, charming and distinguished, a great stickler for all the finish that sandpaper could give.

Edmé Bouchardon | Cupid cutting his bow from the club of Hercules, 1750 (detail) | Musée du Louvre

John Keats | Ode on a Grecian Urn / Ode su un'Urna Greca, 1819

Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,

Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,

Sylvan historian, who canst thus express

A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:

What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape

Of deities or mortals, or of both,

In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?

Alfred Elmore | A Greek Ode | Christie's

Botticelli | Venus and the Three Graces..

Artist: Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510).

Title: Venus and the Three Graces Presenting Gifts to a Young Woman, also known as Giovanna degli Albizzi Receiving a Gift of Flowers from Venus.

Year: 1483-1486.

Type: Fresco, detached and mounted on canvas.

Dimensions: 211 cm × 283 cm (83 in × 111 in).

Location: Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Sleeping Hermaphroditos / L'Ermafrodito dormiente

The ambivalence and voluptuous curves of this figure of Hermaphroditos, who lies asleep on a mattress sculpted by Bernini, are still a source of fascination today.

His body merged with that of the nymph Salmacis, whose advances he had rejected, Hermaphroditos, son of Hermes and Aphrodite, is represented as a bisexed figure.

The original that inspired this figure would have dated from the 2nd century BC, reflecting the late Hellenistic taste for the theatrical.

Department of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities: Hellenistic Art (3rd-1st centuries BC) Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities - Musée du Louvre.

Caravaggio | Buona ventura / The Fortune teller, 1630

La Buona Ventura - The Fortune Teller, è un dipinto ad olio su tela dove Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio 1571-1610 sfoggia la propria conoscenza della pittura di genere, premessa sulla quale in seguito Caravaggio costruirà una vera e propria rivoluzione che investe il significato stesso del 'fare pittura'.

Il quadro rappresenta una zingara che, mentre legge la mano ad un giovane soldato, gli sfila abilmente l’anello. Secondo un biografo, Caravaggio avrebbe invitato a posare per il quadro una zingara che passava per caso per strada.

Il dipinto è una precoce espressione dell’immaginario della zingara dedita al furto ed anche ammaliatrice, capace di incantare ed ingannare.

La versione romana della Buona Ventura (1593-1594)

Rosso Fiorentino | Pietà, 1538-1540

This is the only easel painting that can be dated with certainty to Rosso's stay in France in 1530-40.

The cushions beneath Christ's body bear the blue alerions on an orange background of the coat of arms of Constable Anne de Montmorency, from whose château at Ecouen the Pietà was taken to the Louvre in the late 18th century.

The marks visible on the bodies of Christ and St John are due to an initial, reversed composition - vsible under X-ray photography - which Rosso had blacked out.

Antonio Canova | Psyché et l'Amour, 1788-1793

"Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss" is a sculpture by Antonio Canova first commissioned in 1787 by Colonel John Campbell. It is regarded as a masterpiece of Neoclassical sculpture, but shows the mythological lovers at a moment of great emotion, characteristic of the emerging movement of Romanticism.

It represents the god Cupid in the height of love and tenderness, immediately after awakening the lifeless Psyche with a kiss. The story of Cupid and Psyche is taken from Lucius Apuleius' Latin novel The Golden Ass and was popular in art.

- Joachim Murat acquired the first or prime version (pictured) in 1800. After his death the statue entered the Louvre Museum in Paris, France in 1824;

Lorenzo Bartolini | Dircé, 1834

Ingres Jean-Auguste-Dominique (1780-1867)

Portrait of Lorenzo Bartolini, Musée du Louvre

Dircé (/ˈdɜrsiː/; Ancient Greek: Δίρκη, pronounced Dirke, modern Greek pronunciation Dirki, meaning "double" or "cleft") was the wife of Lycus in Greek mythology, and aunt to Antiope whom Zeus impregnated.

Antiope fled in shame to King Epopeus of Sicyon, but was brought back by Lycus through force, giving birth to the twins Amphion and Zethus on the way.