Omnia Vincit Amor, or The Power of Love in the Three Elements

Omnia Vincit Amor, or The Power of Love in the Three Elements

Benjamin West

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

"Omnia vincit Amor," (Love triumphs over everything) is a quotation from Virgil’s Eclogues. Venus, the goddess of love, is shown at the left with her attributes the doves and with her small son, Amor, armed with bow and arrows, clinging to her draperies. A young deity, presumably Hymen, god of marriage, brandishes a flaming torch with his right hand and grasps in his left cords that leash an eagle. The eagle symbolizes all the creatures living in the element Air, a hippocampus stands for those of the Water, and a lion for those on Earth. The fourth element, Fire, is implicit in the goddess herself, in the winged Amores, or little Loves, and most particularly in Hymen’s flaming torch.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Omnia Vincit Amor, or The Power of Love in the Three ElementsOmnia Vincit Amor, or The Power of Love in the Three ElementsOmnia Vincit Amor, or The Power of Love in the Three ElementsOmnia Vincit Amor, or The Power of Love in the Three ElementsOmnia Vincit Amor, or The Power of Love in the Three Elements

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.