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Lot Essay
The scene represented in the well of this tazza is taken from an antique fairy tale of the 2nd Century AD. In the tale, the beautiful maiden Psyche captivates Cupid, who nevertheless forbids her to look at him and who only comes to visit her under cover of darkness. Psyche, fearful of the possible appearance of her lover, sneaks up on him one night as he sleeps and gazes at him by the light of an oil lamp. While doing so, she lets a drop of the oil fall on him. Cupid wakes and angrily forsakes her, and his palace vanishes. Psyche, desolate, wanders the earth performing impossible tasks in the hope of regaining her lost love. The gods eventually take pity on her and she is re-united with Cupid. Renaissance humanists saw the story as an allegory of the soul's (Psyche's) search for union with desire (Cupid).
The scene is taken from an engraving by Agostino Veneziano who, along with the Master of the Die, produced a series of 32 prints from drawings by Michiel Coxie after original compositions by Raphael (Verdier, loc. cit.).
The scene is taken from an engraving by Agostino Veneziano who, along with the Master of the Die, produced a series of 32 prints from drawings by Michiel Coxie after original compositions by Raphael (Verdier, loc. cit.).