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Lot Essay
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This is a preparatory study of Psyche and the task of the seed for the four-panel painting by Stanhope The Labours of Psyche, depicting the 'impossible tasks' she was set by Venus in order to be re-united with Cupid (as taken from the story in Apuleius's Metamorphoses). Psyche is told to sort out a roomful of assorted grains before nightfall; she does so with help from a colony of friendly ants who help divide the grains into piles for her. The finished four-panel painting was shown at the famous Dudley Gallery at the winter exhibition of 1873 (as no. 267).
This is a preparatory study of Psyche and the task of the seed for the four-panel painting by Stanhope The Labours of Psyche, depicting the 'impossible tasks' she was set by Venus in order to be re-united with Cupid (as taken from the story in Apuleius's Metamorphoses). Psyche is told to sort out a roomful of assorted grains before nightfall; she does so with help from a colony of friendly ants who help divide the grains into piles for her. The finished four-panel painting was shown at the famous Dudley Gallery at the winter exhibition of 1873 (as no. 267).