Cupid and Psyche

This subject is based on the text by Lucius Apulcius (2nd century A.D.) in the Metamorphoses (Books 4-6), which recounts the myth of Psyche, a maiden whose extraordinary beauty aroused the jealousy of Venus. In retaliation, Venus ordered Cupid to make Psyche fall in love with a mortal, but Cupid himself was captivated by her. He carried Psyche to his palace, visiting her only under cover of darkness. Longing to see her lover’s face, Psyche lit a lamp while he slept, but a drop of oil fell onto Cupid, waking him and causing him to flee. Determined to win him back, Psyche submitted to a series of arduous tasks set by Venus, including a descent into Hades. After falling into an enchanted sleep, she was ultimately rescued by Jupiter, reunited with Cupid, and married at a celestial banquet. Renaissance humanists treated the story as a philosophical allegory of the search by the Soul (Psyche) for union with Desire (Cupid), the outcome of which is Pleasure (their offspring).

Bellucci’s paintings bridge the Venetian late Baroque and Rococo, reviving the luminous palette of Veronese and Titian, and anticipating the style of Antonio Balestra and Sebastiano Ricci. The present painting, closely related to Bellucci’s Cupid and Psyche in the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich (inv. no. 915), is datable to the first quarter of the eighteenth century. Its elongated horizontal format suggests that it was originally conceived as an overdoor, intended to be viewed from below.