Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss
The story of Cupid and Psyche handed down orally, even before being forever imprinted on the pages of “the Metamorphoses” by Apuleius.
It tells their #passionate love that only after escape dangers and death, multiple times, it will unite them forever.
☞ Do you know…
‣ The one here represented by #Canova is precisely the moment in which Cupid (or Eros in Greek religion) rushes to safety of his beautiful loved, so beautiful as to arouse the envy and anger of Venus (Aphrodite for Greeks)
‣ This image and the story to which it’s inspired, are the perfect metaphor of the difficult – some times impossible – #balance between mind and heart, or reason and feeling as you prefer, within each of us.
Comforting is that, in the best of the known endings, Psyche successfully overcomes every test demonstrating to Cupid that she can be his life partner… also obtaining immortality.
A conflictual #attraction but which, if it survives obstacles, can give rise to an indissoluble bond.
It’s no coincidence that the daughter who is born of them is Voluptas ie #Pleasure because the most true and profound enjoyment lives in “head and gut” in a complementary way.
#Artgenderpic #AntonioCanova #PsycheRevivedbyCupidsKiss
#Cupid #love #Psyche #mythology #inspiring #gut #feeling #reason #heart #metamorphoses #literature #romantic #tale #legend #amore #amoreepsiche #art #sculpture #museum #dailyart #artlovers #bond
⇒ Date: 1787–1793
⇒ Material: Marble
⇒ Dimensions: 155 cm × 168 cm (61 in × 66 in)
⇒ Site: Louvre, Paris; Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg