Benjamin West, The power of Love in the Three Elements (1809)
11https://danielearte.instabio.cc
"Omnia vincit Amor," (Love triumphs over everything) is a quotation from Virgil's Eclogues. Venus, the goddess of love, is shown at the left with her attributes the doves and with her small son, Amor, armed with bow and arrows, clinging to her draperies. A young deity, presumably Hymen, god of marriage, brandishes a flaming torch with his right hand and grasps in his left cords that leash an eagle. The eagle symbolizes all the creatures living in the element Air, a hippocampus stands for those of the Water, and a lion for those on Earth. The fourth element, Fire, is implicit in the goddess herself, in the winged Amores, or little Loves, and most particularly in Hymen's flaming torch.
Benjamin West PRA was an Anglo-American painter of historical scenes during and after the American Revolutionary War and the Seven Years' War. He was the second president of the Royal Academy of London from 1792 to 1805 and from 1806 to 1820. He was offered the title of Knight by the British Crown, but he refused it, believing that he should instead become an equal. He said: "Art is the representation of human beauty, ideally perfect in appearance, graceful and noble in attitude".
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