3-035-642 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Fountain of Love, about 1785. Additional Info: In the midst of a verdant forest, a young man and woman eagerly rush forward, their feet just reaching the edge of a fountain's basin. Putti frolic in the fountain's waters and billowing spray, and one of them offers a cup of the magical liquid for the young lovers to drink. The story of the Garden of Love, an allegory of the nature and progress of love that has its origins in the poetry of classical antiquity and the Middle Ages, centers on this Fountain of Love. The fountain brings forth the water, into which Cupid dips his arrows or from which lovers drink and fall in love. In nearly every period, artists have painted this romantic motif.