Fidelity Crowning Love

The present group is closely related to one in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (H. 19 in.; 48.3 cm), where the right hand of Fidelity rests on the left arm of Love in a restraining gesture and the plait of hair is placed further forward on her head. The identification of the subject is due to Reau, the group having formerly been called Diana and Endymion. The pet dog is an attribute of Fidelity and the wreath may symbolize eternity. The group belongs to a class of small marble sculptures which originated in the workshop of Falconet in the 1750s, though no individual example can be ascribed with certainty to Falconet himself. The Frick marble was one of nine such small sculptures in the Pierpont Morgan collection; three of these are now in the Huntington Art Gallery, San Marino, California, and two are in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Source: Art in The Frick Collection: Paintings, Sculpture, Decorative Arts, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996.

J. Pierpont Morgan, London and New York. Frick, 1915.

Source: Sculpture in The Frick Collection: German, Netherlandish, French and British. Volume IV. New York: The Frick Collection, 1970.