Frederick Leighton: The Bath of Psyche
The Bath of Psyche (Le Bain de Psyché), oil on canvas painting of 1879 by Lord Frederick Leighton (1830-1896), 622 cm (244.88 in) x 1892 cm (744.88 in), Tate Gallery, London, United Kingdom
The legend of Cupid and Psyche (also Amour and Psyche, or Eros and Psyche) is a sub-plot from Lucius Apuleius’ novel Metamorphoses of Apuleius (nick-named as The Golden Ass by St. Augustine), written in the 2nd century AD. Though there are many other sub-stories in the novel, Cupid and Psyche is the most famous and the most popular among artists, as much as depictions of Venus and her son Cupid.
William-Adolphe Bouguereau: Elegy (Douleur d’amour)
Elegy (Douleur d'amour), oil on canvas painting of 1899 by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905), private collection
Elegy (Douleur d’amour), oil painting of 1899 by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, showing a grieving woman over a tombstone, possibly Venus along with Cupid
Paolo Veronese: Mars and Venus United by Love
Mars and Venus United by Love (1578), oil on canvas painting by the Italian Renaissance master Paolo Veronese (aka Paolo Caliari, 1528-1588), 205.7 cm x 161 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The oil painting titled ‘Mars and Venus United by Love’ (1578) is one of the five paintings created by Paolo Veronese for the art collection of Rudolf II, the Holy Roman Emperor. The paintings were later owned by Queen Christina of Sweden, after the Swedish troops who sacked Prague Castle on 26 July 1648 took away the best of the collection of Rudolf II by the end of The Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), one of the most destructive conflicts in European history.
After the death of Christina of Sweden, ‘Mars and Venus United by Love’ passed through many collections including the Orleans Collection, Bridgewater/Sutherland Collection and others before it was acquired by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1909-10.
In ‘Mars and Venus United by Love’, as the title itself clearly suggests, Veronese depicts the scene in which Cupid is tying together the beautiful plump leg of his mother Venus and a leg of Mars uniting them in love. Mars is in the center of the picture in his lavish, imperial paludamentum (military cloak), as Roman emperors used wear in Imperial Rome. Behind him, there is the depiction of a satyr supporting an entablature. Goddess Venus complements her beauty by wearing her customary jewelry, including a pearls headset adoring her golden hair, pearl earrings, a pearl necklace, matching gold bracelets, and an ornamental belt reminiscent of the strap of a quiver. The white-gray horse tethered to the tree, a putto with the spear of Mars, and some foliage and a bright sky in the background complete the scene.
Titian: Venus with the organ player
Venus with the organ player (Venus mit Orgelspieler, Amor und Hund), oil painting on canvas painting created in 1550 by Titian (1490-1576), dimensions: 210 cm (82.68 in) x 115 cm (45.28 in), located in Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany
Sebastiano Ricci: Venus and Cupid
Venus and Cupid (1700), oil on canvas painting by the Italian painter of the late Baroque school of Venice Sebastiano Ricci (1659-1734), 72 cm x 97 cm
Cupid (in Greek mythology: Eros), the Roman god of desire and erotic love, is the son of Venus and Mars. He is usually depicted with his bow and arrows to inspire love and sexual desire.
Once Venus became very jealous of Princess Psyche, whom her subjects loved so much that they forgot to worship her. So, she ordered Cupid to make Psyche fall in love with the worst creature in the world.
Cupid sneaked into Psyche’s room when she was sleeping and found her amazingly beautiful. Cupid’s golden arrow that ignites love accidentally scratched himself and he himself fell in love with her. When he narrated to Venus about what happened she was enraged, and a few twists and turns follows to their love story.
They had a daughter, Voluptas (Hedone) and Psyche became a goddess. The tale of Cupid and Psyche is their love story, repeated endlessly in art and literature.
Almost an analogous character to Cupid is the Hindu deity Kāmadeva (Kama), featured in Indian myths as a handsome, young, winged man who also wields a bow and arrows, and shoots his arrow to ignite love as Cupid does in Roman mythology.
Titian: Venus at her toilet
Venus at her toilet (or Venus with a mirror), oil painting on canvas painted in 1554-1555 by Titian showing Venus Effect using a mirror, 105.5 cm x 124.5 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, United States.
Artemisia Gentileschi: The Sleeping Venus
Venere Dormiente (The Sleeping Venus or Cupid and Venus), oil on canvas painting of 1625-30 by the Italian Early Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1652), 37 in x 56.75 in, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia
Here is another Sleeping Venus set in an Imperial Roman palace setting typical of the Renaissance period artists. Here, again the Roman Goddess Venus is depicted as an ordinary woman in indoor settings, very much like the settings used by Titian for his Venus of Urbino (1538). Titian’s sleeping dog is missing in this painting, but a complementing figure of Cupid is painted instead.
The Italian Early Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi came to the art scene which was always dominated by men, when female artists were not easily accepted by the artistic community. The only women painters who had certain level of success before her were Sofonisba Anguissola (1530-1625), Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614) and Fede Galizia (1578-1630).
Artemisia Gentileschi painted several pictures of suffering women who had strong characters from legends in mythology and stories in the Bible, to depict victimized and suffering characters, especially women. She is known for paintings depicting the legends of Susanna, Judith, the Penitent Magdalene, and of course, Bathsheba and other legendary characters and themes.
Bertel Thorvaldsen: Graces with Cupid’s Arrow
Gratier med Amors pil(Graces with Cupid's Arrow or Graces and Amor), marble sculpture carved by Christian Freund under the supervision of HW Bissen in 1864,based on Bertel Thorvaldsen’s original Three Graces of 1817-18, displayed at Thorvaldsen Museum, Denmark
This marble sculpture titled ‘Gratier med Amors pil’ (other titles: Graces with Cupid’s Arrow, or Graces and Amor) carved by Christian Freund under the supervision of HW Bissen in 1864, is based on the original sculpture of 1817-18 by the Danish sculptor of international fame Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844). It is another version of the Greek mythological theme ‘The Three Graces’ made popular by several painters and sculptors.
Sandro Botticelli: Primavera (Allegory of Spring)
Primavera (Allegory of Spring), tempera on panel painted by Sandro Botticelli in 1482, dimensions 203 cm x 314 cm (80 in x 124 in) located in Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy
The tempera panel painting Primavera (or, Allegory of Spring), painted in 1482 by the Italian artist Sandro Botticelli, has been praised as “one of the most popular paintings in Western art”.
The painting depicts a group of mythological figures in an orange grove, which is allegorical of Spring. The painting has six female figures, two males and a putto, symbolic of Cupid, indicating love on a platonic level.
The central or the most important figure in the painting, a partly red-draped woman above whose head can be seen the figure of Cupid, is Venus. The trees in her backdrop have their branches forming an arc, making her look like emerging from a temple.
It seems, Botticelli had modeled Venus after the most popular artists’ model and the greatest beauty of her age and the city of Florence, Simonetta Vespucci, the wife of Marco Vespucci and the alleged mistress of Giuliano de’ Medici. Simonetta was the model for Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, according to some art historians.
Towards the left of the painting, the three women in diaphanous white dress who hold hands and dance together are The Three Graces, on whom Cupid (the flying cherub or putto) points his arrow.
The red-draped man with a sword near The Three Graces raising a rod towards some clouds above is Mercury, who keeps the garden protected from unwanted and untimely rains.
The flower-crowned woman wearing a floral gown and scattering flowers is Primavera (Flora), the goddess of Spring.
The woman standing next to Primavera in diaphanous white dress is the nymph Chloris who is being pursued by a winged male, Zephyrus, the god of the winds. According to legends, Zephyrus kidnaps Chloris whom he marries and transforms into a deity.
Though nothing much is known about the history of this painting, it seems one of the Medici family members might have commissioned it and it has been part of the collection of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, since 1919.
