Amor en de wind laten een vuur oplaaien 1686

Jan van Vianen made this engraving, titled "Amor en de wind laten een vuur oplaaien," which translates to "Love and the wind fuel a fire," sometime between 1660 and 1726 in the Netherlands. It is one of a series of emblems d’amour. The image contains an allegorical scene referencing the classical idea that love is a fire that needs to be constantly fueled. Here, we see Cupid struggling to carry a log to a large fire while the wind god, Zephyr, blows on the flames. The Dutch Republic in the 17th and 18th centuries was a major center for the production and circulation of emblems, which were often used to teach moral lessons or to convey complex ideas in a visual form. The Rijksmuseum possesses a large collection of Dutch emblems, reflecting the nation's rich cultural and intellectual history. To learn more about the social context in which this work was produced, we can consult collections of emblem books as well as other prints and drawings produced in the Dutch Republic during this period.