Title: Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss, 1793 AD
Artist: Antonio Canova
Location: The Musée du Louvre in Paris, France
Medium: Marble
Aprox. Dimensions: 5.2 by 5.6 by 3.3 feet / 1.6 by 1.7 by 1 meters
This piece depicts two lovers of Classical mythology with a complicated relationship. Psyche, a mortal woman, and Cupid, the god of love, are just meeting in a tender embrace at the end of a long and convoluted love story. Because Psyche was very beautiful and beloved by Cupid the son of Venus, she gained Venus’ typical spite and jealousy. Venus intended Cupid to cause Psyche to instead fall in love with all manner of monsters, but Cupid instead carried Psyche to a safe and distant place, where he could go to her only in darkness, that she might not know who he was.
However, one night Psyche decided to defy his wishes, and lit a lamp. She then simultaneously discovered the god of love beside her, and awoken him to the fact that she knew his forbidden identity. Cupid flees, and the bitter Venus commands Psyche to do impossible tasks to gain him back again. One of the tasks is to go down into the underworld with a bit of beauty in a box for a goddess down below, and Psyche nearly slays herself enter the underworld. However, as in all her other tasks, she is saved and told a better way by a miracle, and enters and leaves the underworld unscathed. Her curiosity gets the better of her, however, and during the trip Psyche peeks into the box to gain the beauty inside.
Venus is more cunning, however, and inside the box in only a deep sleep, which Psyche succumbs to. Cupid finds her at last, moved by her struggle and regret for lighting the lamp. She is unconscious, and Cupid pricks her with an arrow to see if she is alive and kisses her. She awakens in her lover’s arms, and is granted an immortal eternity with him, after Cupid pleads with Venus on Psyche’s behalf. Psyche then became the goddess of the soul. Appropriately, love and the soul are united in the myth.
Apuleius records this story in books IV–VI in the Metamorphoses, dating from the second century. Canova is a perfect Neoclassicist, then, in using such source material to base this statue on. Indeed, Antonio Canova was a major 18th century artist working in and defining the Neoclassical style. Born in 1757, he was the son and grandson of stonemasons. He grew up studying art, and was even accused at the beginning of his career of cheating to make such realistic figures. He later became an active networker and sculptor in Rome, where he lived for most of his life. He was commissioned for several papal tombs in St. Peter’s, which chronologically show an increasing grasp of the Classical being better understood and eloquently reinstated in Canova’s time.
One of his more famous works capturing this Neoclassical synthesis is not only the touching Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss, but also his 1808 Venus Victrix, a marble sculptural portrait of Napoleon’s sister as a classical goddess. This was complete during his service as Napoleon’s court sculptor. During his career Canova also served as inspector general of fine arts and antiquities of the papal states, and was given the title of Marquis of Ischia by the pope for bringing back to Italy stolen Italian art from the French. From his position in the court in France, Canova powerfully influenced French art as well as the growth of the Neoclassical sculptural style throughout Europe at large. He died in 1822 and was buried in his homeland of Venice, fittingly in a tomb he modeled after the Pantheon.
Bibiolography:
Buñuel, Nora. “Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss, Canova.” Live with Art. Blogspot, 13 July 2012. Web. 14 Apr. 2013.
Chipault, Raphaël. “A Closer Look at Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss.” Musée Du Louvre. Musée Du Louvre, 2012. Web. 14 Apr. 2013.
Irwin, David, and Amy Tikkanen. “Antonio Canova, Marchese D’Ischia (Italian Sculptor).” Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 Mar. 2007. Web. 14 Apr. 2013.
Kuiper, Kathleen, and Grace Young. “Psyche.” Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, 6 Dec. 2007. Web. 14 Apr. 2013.
Photo:
http: // www. flickr .com/photos/87542849@N00/6335746073
Meeting Myths 