1The PointeJean-Honore Fragonard, The Swing. 1776. Oil on canvas, 35 × 32 inches. The WallaceCollection, London. This famous painting seems at first glance to be a picture of young people atplay, emulating innocent children. But the eighteenth-century audience read this as a libertineand his mistress. The swing was a code for the sexual freedom of the privileged “playmates” inthe painting. (Jacobus, L. A., & Martin, F. D., 2019). According to Fragonard Artworks, theswing, in the 18th century, was generally read as a sexual metaphor, due to the rhythm ofmovement and the positioning of the body, with extended legs, at the moment when the swing'sarc reached its climax; the loss of a shoe often symbolized the loss of innocence.scene is set against a forest swarmed with sculpture close by individuals and plants. Theyoung lady's outstretched foot, from which a shoe flies, focuses at the most unmistakable figure,conspicuous to watchers as Etienne-Maurice Falconet's Menacing Cupid. Threatening Cupid, amodel that conveyed its own confounded history and set of affiliations, adds a genuine note to
