Fable illustration: Friends who are too much of one mind, 1718

About the Work

Picart’s designs for illustrations combine French elegance with the Dutch passion for storytelling. Death and Cupid, the god of love, are travelling together and each accidentally ends up with the other’s arrows. The consequences are drastic: an old man falls in love with a young woman and young lovers die sudden deaths. In "The Friends Who Agreed Too Much" (Inv.-Nr. 3154), four friends who are always fighting ask the god Apollo for the same tastes and opinions. He grants them their wish, but they become so bored with one another that they part ways and make new friends.