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Lot Essay
The son of an official of the Duc d'Orleans, Girodet added the name of his guardian and adoptive father to his own after the early death of his parents. It had originally been intended that he study architecture, but he was encouraged by Jacques Louis David to join his studio and become an artist. Following a trip to Italy from 1790-5, Girodet revolted against the prevailing system of academic education and instead strove to renew traditional mythological subjects.
The present work which is dated 1799, the seventh year after the revolution, is a prime example of Girodet's early mythological work and can be compared to his 1798 Danäe in the Musée de Leipzig, as well as to the Four Seasons, decorations executed for the Château de Compiègne.
The subject, a late antique fairy tale by Lucius Apuleius (2nd century A.D.), in the Metamorphoses (Books 4-6) tells of Psyche, a maiden so beautiful that she aroused Venus' envy. Cupid, sent by Venus to foster Psyche's love for a worthless being, fell in love with her himself. He brought her to his palace, but only visited her after dark. Eager to see him she took an oil lamp and gazed at him while he slept. A drop from the lamp spilt onto the sleeping Cupid who awoke and angrily and hastily left her. In an effort to win him back, Psyche submitted to various impossible tasks set by Venus. These included fetching a casket from Proserpine in Hades which she disobediently opened, and was subsequently overcome by sleep. Psyche was eventually rescued by Jupiter who interceded with the vengeful Venus on Cupid's behalf. She was carried up to heaven by Mercury, reunited with her lover, and married at a festive banquet. Renaissance humanists treated the story as a philosophical allegory of the search of the Soul (Psyche) for union with Desire (Cupid), the outcome of which is Pleasure (their offspring).
The tendancy towards eroticism, apparent in works from this period, is perhaps a reflection of the social manifestations of the time. A crisis in moral values marked the turn of the century, with patrons from the newly rich financial aristocracy commissioning overtly sensual works which reflected their tastes. George Levitine discusses Girodet's use of the human body as a vehicle for the expression of the sentiments of the soul using an ill-defined background because of its poetic virtue and its stimulating effect on the imagination (G. Levitine, Girodet-Trioson: An Iconographical Study, 1978, dissertation, Harvard, p. 198). Girodet himself wrote 'There are however a few special subjects in which the incoherence of ideas, the vagueness of images, the strange shapes of objects leave a wider field to the imagination and necessitate, even demand, a confused composition. Such are fairy-like themes, or subjects of magic, dreams, apparitions, the fantastic scenes of which belong to the realm of the mind' (Girodet-Trioson, Oeuvres postumes, ed. P.A. Coupin, 1829, II, 'de l'Ordonnance en peinture', pp. 219-20). He achieved this in part by using a vaporous, mysterious backdrop to give a feeling of spatial ambiguity where the subject and related objects were compressed, almost weightless, against the picture plane. This enhanced their sensuality and other-worldliness according to his own concept of originality. Their lack of physical relation to their setting defy the laws of gravity, and this visible revolt away from the ideals of David was further emphasized by the monochromatic tones which characterize works of this period.
The present work which is dated 1799, the seventh year after the revolution, is a prime example of Girodet's early mythological work and can be compared to his 1798 Danäe in the Musée de Leipzig, as well as to the Four Seasons, decorations executed for the Château de Compiègne.
The subject, a late antique fairy tale by Lucius Apuleius (2nd century A.D.), in the Metamorphoses (Books 4-6) tells of Psyche, a maiden so beautiful that she aroused Venus' envy. Cupid, sent by Venus to foster Psyche's love for a worthless being, fell in love with her himself. He brought her to his palace, but only visited her after dark. Eager to see him she took an oil lamp and gazed at him while he slept. A drop from the lamp spilt onto the sleeping Cupid who awoke and angrily and hastily left her. In an effort to win him back, Psyche submitted to various impossible tasks set by Venus. These included fetching a casket from Proserpine in Hades which she disobediently opened, and was subsequently overcome by sleep. Psyche was eventually rescued by Jupiter who interceded with the vengeful Venus on Cupid's behalf. She was carried up to heaven by Mercury, reunited with her lover, and married at a festive banquet. Renaissance humanists treated the story as a philosophical allegory of the search of the Soul (Psyche) for union with Desire (Cupid), the outcome of which is Pleasure (their offspring).
The tendancy towards eroticism, apparent in works from this period, is perhaps a reflection of the social manifestations of the time. A crisis in moral values marked the turn of the century, with patrons from the newly rich financial aristocracy commissioning overtly sensual works which reflected their tastes. George Levitine discusses Girodet's use of the human body as a vehicle for the expression of the sentiments of the soul using an ill-defined background because of its poetic virtue and its stimulating effect on the imagination (G. Levitine, Girodet-Trioson: An Iconographical Study, 1978, dissertation, Harvard, p. 198). Girodet himself wrote 'There are however a few special subjects in which the incoherence of ideas, the vagueness of images, the strange shapes of objects leave a wider field to the imagination and necessitate, even demand, a confused composition. Such are fairy-like themes, or subjects of magic, dreams, apparitions, the fantastic scenes of which belong to the realm of the mind' (Girodet-Trioson, Oeuvres postumes, ed. P.A. Coupin, 1829, II, 'de l'Ordonnance en peinture', pp. 219-20). He achieved this in part by using a vaporous, mysterious backdrop to give a feeling of spatial ambiguity where the subject and related objects were compressed, almost weightless, against the picture plane. This enhanced their sensuality and other-worldliness according to his own concept of originality. Their lack of physical relation to their setting defy the laws of gravity, and this visible revolt away from the ideals of David was further emphasized by the monochromatic tones which characterize works of this period.