After going through Douce’s folder labelled ‘Courtships & Love Affairs’, I think it is fair to say that he was not much of a romantic. His selection of images of romance includes this depiction of a gloomy ‘man in love’ from the title-page of Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621):
A couple holding hands and watching some cautionary frogs, from a Dutch book of emblems:
Jacob Cats, Spiegel Van den Ouden ende Nieuwen Tijdt, In's Graven-Hage, 1632, plate 16, p. 62 (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)
And a French young lady shopping with her lover, who seems rather keen on printed fabrics:
Luckily for the purposes of this Valentine’s post, an element of drama, a hint of forbidden romance, and plenty of exclamation marks are all provided by this Italian scene of elopment:
Giovanni Cardini after Antonio Fedi, Oh delizie d'Amor!, c. 1810-20, etching and stipple (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)
I was surprised not to find any examples of the themes of the Triumph of Love and the Garden of Love -both, however, are duly represented among the prints (also from Douce’s collection) arranged by artist, period and school. This, for instance, is a rather complex allegory of the power of Venus by Hieronymus Hopfer after the Monogrammist PP:
Hieronymus Hopfer, The power of love, c. 1543-63, etching on iron (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)
Meanwhile, in the delightful Master ES’s Garden of Love, two couples play chess and make garlands, while a young woman reads a love letter under the quizzical gaze of a court fool or jester:
Master ES, The garden of love with chess-players, 1450-67, engraving (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)