Love and Psyche, part of a fountain, in marble sculpted in the round. Standing, the couple is embracing, about to exchange a kiss; Psyche has her hips girded with a drapery and love is wearing a modest vine leaf; at their feet, three dolphins with their tails raised serve as a spillway. Probably mid 18th century or earlier H. 70 cm (small accidents and missing parts, slight erosion) This group seems to be inspired by a Roman work in the Capitoline Museum, itself a copy of a Hellenistic group. The one in the Capitoline was given by Pope Benedict Xiv in 1749, shortly after it was discovered on the Aventine hill in February 1749. Very popular, it was copied in 1750. Here, the sculptor gives a slightly different interpretation with a love represented more as a young man than an adolescent. The presence of dolphins at the feet of the two lovers spitting water indicates that this group was located in the center of a fountain and this, for several decades, if we consider the erosion of the epidermis of the marble. Work consulted : F. Haskell and N. Penny, For the love of the antique. La statuaire gréco-romaine et le goût européen, Paris, 1999, p.165 and 166.