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Lot Essay
The affectionate composition of Cupid and Psyche as youthful lovers intertwined in an embrace is known from terracottas and reliefs from the Hellenistic period and is found throughout Roman art in various media from oil lamps to intaglios, sarcophagi to free-standing sculptures (see nos. 121ff. in Icard-Gianolio, "Psyche" in LIMC). This exact statue type is best known from an example discovered in Rome on the Aventine Hill in 1750, now in the Capitoline Museums (no. 26 in Haskell and Penny, Taste and the Antique). The arrangement of the two lovers was so appealing to the 18th-century audience that multiple plaster casts were created and the image was duplicated in other media by the workshops of Wedgewood, Zoffoli and Sèvres (Haskell and Penny, p. 190, op. cit.).
The charm of the innocent couple to the ancient and modern audience is tied equally to both the physical beauty of the interpretations and to the allegory it embodies: that of heavenly happiness, when the soul (Psyche) couples with love (Cupid). Haskell and Penny (p. 190, op. cit.) quote earlier sources' response to the Capitoline example, describing it as, "the first burst of youthful loveliness" and "innocent fondness." The story is most famously told by Apuleius in The Golden Ass.
This sculpture has long been considered "lost." Waywell (The Lever and Hope Sculptures, p. 86, no. 29) describes it as "present location unknown;" and Watkin and Hewat-Jaboor (Thomas Hope, Regency Designer, p. 117) mention "a statuette of Cupid embracing Psyche that remains lost." Thomas Hope (1769-1831) was the British author and virtuoso whose publications on his collection and its display had considerable influence on the taste of English Regency design. Waywell informs that the statue was acquired by McPeake in the landmark sale of Thomas Hope's collection at Christie's London in 1917. It has been confirmed that McPeake was the buyer of record by the hand-written annotation on Christie's archival copy of the sale catalogue. The link from the purchaser McPeake to the next famous owner, William Randolph Hearst, was ascertained through an article in Apollo where McPeake is described as the manager of Hearst's European office (Levkoff, Hearst and the Antique, p. 56). Further investigation on the provenance led backwards to a 1997 article by Jenkins ("Seeking the Bubble Reputation"), whose research revealed that Hope had acquired this Cupid and Psyche at Christie's London in 1801 from the collection of Sir William Hamilton (1731-1803), the British diplomat to the Kingdom of Naples and a noted antiquarian. He was in possession of the Cupid and Psyche prior to 1798, when his collection was evacuated from Naples. Throughout the 19th century, while part of the collection of Hope and his heirs, this Cupid and Psyche was published countless times by the leading scholars of the day, including Westmacott, de Clarac, Michaelis and Reinach.
The charm of the innocent couple to the ancient and modern audience is tied equally to both the physical beauty of the interpretations and to the allegory it embodies: that of heavenly happiness, when the soul (Psyche) couples with love (Cupid). Haskell and Penny (p. 190, op. cit.) quote earlier sources' response to the Capitoline example, describing it as, "the first burst of youthful loveliness" and "innocent fondness." The story is most famously told by Apuleius in The Golden Ass.
This sculpture has long been considered "lost." Waywell (The Lever and Hope Sculptures, p. 86, no. 29) describes it as "present location unknown;" and Watkin and Hewat-Jaboor (Thomas Hope, Regency Designer, p. 117) mention "a statuette of Cupid embracing Psyche that remains lost." Thomas Hope (1769-1831) was the British author and virtuoso whose publications on his collection and its display had considerable influence on the taste of English Regency design. Waywell informs that the statue was acquired by McPeake in the landmark sale of Thomas Hope's collection at Christie's London in 1917. It has been confirmed that McPeake was the buyer of record by the hand-written annotation on Christie's archival copy of the sale catalogue. The link from the purchaser McPeake to the next famous owner, William Randolph Hearst, was ascertained through an article in Apollo where McPeake is described as the manager of Hearst's European office (Levkoff, Hearst and the Antique, p. 56). Further investigation on the provenance led backwards to a 1997 article by Jenkins ("Seeking the Bubble Reputation"), whose research revealed that Hope had acquired this Cupid and Psyche at Christie's London in 1801 from the collection of Sir William Hamilton (1731-1803), the British diplomat to the Kingdom of Naples and a noted antiquarian. He was in possession of the Cupid and Psyche prior to 1798, when his collection was evacuated from Naples. Throughout the 19th century, while part of the collection of Hope and his heirs, this Cupid and Psyche was published countless times by the leading scholars of the day, including Westmacott, de Clarac, Michaelis and Reinach.