The Progress of Love; The Meeting 1771 - 1773

Jean-Honoré Fragonard captured this amorous encounter in paint, presenting us with a garden scene ripe with the iconography of love. Note the statue of Venus, goddess of love, standing watch over the unfolding drama, accompanied by Cupid, her son. This pairing, seen since antiquity, reappears throughout art history, a constant echo of love's enduring presence in the human psyche. Consider the garden itself; a secluded, fertile space, symbolizing both innocence and temptation. Such a place recalls the Garden of Eden, a powerful symbol resonating with themes of desire and transgression. The figures' gestures convey longing and hesitation, a dance of approach and avoidance. This pursuit, a motif echoed in countless works, taps into our collective memory of courtship rituals, engaging us on a primal level. The statue of Venus standing over them all is a visual anchor, a representation of love’s complex nature, an echo from the ancient world that has been transformed and reinterpreted time and again.