Love Doctor (L'amour medecin) 1725 - 1755

This print by C. Mathey presents us with a scene of love and medicine, rich with symbolic gestures and figures. We see a woman, seemingly afflicted with lovesickness, attended by figures who seek to cure her malady. Observe the figure of Cupid, typically a slender youth, here depicted as a rather corpulent cherub. This is no mere aesthetic choice. Since antiquity, Cupid has represented desire. His transformation into this more 'earthly' form can be seen as a commentary on the physical and, perhaps, even base nature of desire. Similarly, the act of kneeling, a gesture of supplication and humility, is repeated by the figure at the woman’s feet. The presence of the doctor-like figure suggests a more rational approach to matters of the heart. Consider how these motifs resonate with our own understandings of love and desire today. Has Cupid become less ethereal over time? Do we still kneel, metaphorically, before the objects of our affection? Perhaps these symbols continue to tap into our collective memory, evoking the timeless, often irrational, experience of being in love.