Modelled and fired. Coated with a cream-coloured finishing layer.

Amor’s left wing had broken off and has been reattached. There are some shrinkage cracks in the base.

Collection of the artist; whose sale Amsterdam (Roos), 17 November 1868, no. 81 (bought in); …; sale, Amsterdam (Frederik Muller), 20-27 May 1919, no. 1989; …; presented to the museum by the heirs of Catharina van Eeghen (1860-1943), Amsterdam, 1943

Object number: BK-15521

Credit line: Gift of the heirs of C. van Eeghen, Amsterdam

Apart from a great many initial sketches for large statues and monuments, Louis Royer (1793-1868) also made a number of autonomous cabinet sculptures in terracotta.¹¹Cf. A. Jacobs, Welgevormd: Mechelse beeldhouwers in Europa (1780-1850), exh. cat. Mechelen (Lamot/Museum Schepenhuis) 2006, no. 87. The loosely modelled figure featured here is a successful example of such work. It depicts a youthful god of love, Amor, trying to restrain a dog with a leash. The dog is a symbol of fidelity, making this an original variant on the popular theme of the battle between Virtue and Vice (cf. BK-18751), or between Earthly and Heavenly Love. The theme of the figure is clarified by the title under which it was entered in 1868 in the catalogue of the sale of the contents of Royer’s workshop: L’Amour empêchant les écarts de la Fidélité (Love restraining the foolish sallies of fidelity). According to that catalogue, the piece belongs to the second period of Royer’s artistic career, which is further specified as the period between 1828, the year Royer returned to the Netherlands after his four-year stay in Rome, and 1840.²²Sale collection Louis Royer, Amsterdam (Roos), 17 November 1868, p. 5, the sculpture is no. 81.

The piece refers, in both composition and theme, to work on two reliefs by Royer’s great example, Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844): Amor Ruling the World and Amor Ruling the Underworld (fig. a) (from a series of four) dating from 1828.³³Copenhagen, Thorvaldsens Museum, inv. nos. resp. A378 (marble), A382 (plaster model), A380 (marble) and A384 (plaster model); cf. U. Peters, Künstlerleben in Rom: Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844): Der dänische Bildhauer und seine deutschen Freunde, exh. cat. Nuremberg (Germanisches Nationalmuseum)/Schleswig (Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum Schloss Gottorf) 1992, no. 7.4. Here the youthful god of love attempts to restrain a lion and the three-headed dog Cerberus, respectively. It is perfectly plausible that Royer had seen those reliefs – which were in turn inspired by antique cameos – in Thorvaldsen’s workshop in Rome before he returned to the Netherlands later that year. The fact that he added a personal twist to his work by opting for a three-dimensional group instead of a relief and for a dog instead of a lion or Cerberus, suggests this was an attempt to emulate Thorvaldsen. A later model by the French sculptor Auguste Joseph Peiffer (1832-1879), known through various casts in bronze, is highly reminiscent of the present version by Royer and was perhaps inspired by it.⁴⁴Cf. P. Kjellberg, Les bronzes du XIXe siècle, Paris 1989, p. 536.

Bieke van der Mark, 2026

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 451, with earlier literature; Langendijk in W. Bergé, Heimwee naar de klassieken: De beelden van Mathieu Kessels en zijn tijdgenoten, 1815-1840, exh. cat. Den Bosch (Noordbrabants Museum) 1994-95, no. 64; G. van den Hout and E. Langendijk (eds.), Louis Royer 1793-1868: Een Vlaamse beeldhouwer in Amsterdam, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Museum Amstelkring) 1994, p. 8 (ill.); A. Jacobs, Welgevormd: Mechelse beeldhouwers in Europa (1780-1850), exh. cat. Mechelen (Lamot/Museum Schepenhuis) 2006, p. 239

B. van der Mark, 2026, 'Louis Royer, Amor Restraining the Foolish Sallies of Fidelity, The Hague, c. 1803', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20035883