The Triumph of Eros: Art and Seduction in 18th Century France
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Triumph of Eros: Art and Seduction in 18th Century France was a 2006 exhibition at the Hermitage Rooms featuring the private collection of 18th century French erotica of Tsar Nicholas I. For more than 200 years, the Tsar's collection of has lain in storage in the vaults of the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, considered too risque to be displayed during the Soviet regime. It featured more than 100 engravings, etchings and objects.
The exhibition featured Rococo works by Boucher, etchings by Fragonard and the Menacing Cupid sculpture by Etienne-Maurice Falconet, which was commissioned by Madame de Pompadour.
The show also hoped "to shed insight into changing sexual attitudes during the 18th century. Some images, which deal with the then popular subject of young women contemplating love and sexual desire alone in their boudoirs, can be regarded as the expression of a backlash against Enlightenment rationality, as well as the "disruptive" presence of Cupid.'
Satish Padiyar, co-curator of the exhibition with Barnaby Wright, said the "cult of Cupid" represent the counter enlightenment with "anti-order and passion, and not being in control of things."
