Learn more about the history of one of the most emblematic and famous sculptures of all time; “love and psyche”, made by the renowned painter and sculptor of Italian origin Antonio Canova. It is a neoclassical marble sculpture.
love and psyche
The work "Love and psyche", also known as Psyche revived by the kiss of love, is one of the most important and emblematic works of art in history. We are referring to a white marble sculptural figure that was first made in the XNUMXth century.
The person responsible for carrying out the work Amor y Psyche was nothing more and nothing less than the Italian-born painter Antonio Canova. This work makes a Socratic allusion to the impulse of Eros (Love) the dynamic function of uniting body and soul using sensory and intellectual stimuli that extol loving passion.
The sculpture made by Canova can currently be found in the Louvre Museum in the city of Paris, where it is preserved. This work was one of the most representative and famous in the artistic career of Antonio Canova, considered by many to be one of the most important sculptors and painters of neoclassicism.
History
The painter and sculptor of Italian origin, Antonio Canova, was commissioned to make this important sculpture, widely famous throughout the world. Love and Psyche was specifically made in the decade of 1787, when Canova was in charge of shaping it, however it took several years for the sculpture to be completed in its entirety.
The sculpture known as "Love and Psyche" was completed by Canova in the year 1793. Canova, described by many as one of the greatest neoclassical sculptors in history, made a great effort to make sense of this work of art. The sculpture arose after a request made at the time by British Colonel John Campbell.
The work was finally acquired by the Dutch dealer and collector Henry Hoppe in the 1800s. Some time later it would end up in the hands of the King of Naples and Napoleon's brother-in-law, Joachim Murat, who took it to show it among the jewels of his castle. It is said that this sculpture is part of one of the six versions of the legend of Cupid and Psyche, immortalized by Apuleius in his Metamorphosis (The Golden Ass), created by Antonio Canova.
Today the sculpture can be seen in the Louvre Museum, located in the tourist city of Paris, in France. It is one of the most admired and famous works in history. According to mythology, Psyche was a beautiful and attractive princess, daughter of the king of Asia. Her beauty led her to be compared to that of the unforgettable Aphrodite, something that Aphrodite, as a goddess of beauty, did not like very much.
The story goes that Aphrodite, in the midst of her annoyance at such a comparison, tried to punish princess Psyche twice, but she never thought that her son Eros, the Greek god of love, would end up madly in love with Psyche.
This work is made under the neoclassical style. The sculpture has an approximate height of 1,55 meters, in length it measures 1,68 meters, while in width, the sculpture is around 1,01 meters. The Italian Canova made it out of marble, which is why it is considered one of the most precious works in history.
The Italian painter and sculptor used the sculpting technique to create this emblematic piece. The work represents Psyche revived by Cupid's kiss of love. It could be said that this sculpture alludes in a rather dramatic way to all the love, passion and desire that arises unexpectedly between the two lovers.
Mythology
As we have mentioned a little above, the work Love and Psyche by the Italian Antonio Canova, is a direct representation of the passionate story of Psyche and Cupid from The Metamorphosis of Apuleius. In mythology, Psyche is represented as a beautiful and attractive princess. Her indisputable beauty caused much envy in Aphrodite's life.
In the midst of her envy, Aphrodite decides to send her son Cupid to shoot an arrow at her and thus cause the princess to fall in love with the most horrendous man in the entire kingdom. However, the plans that Aphrodite had in mind did not cause the effects that she was hoping for.
Aphrodite's cupid son ended up falling madly in love with princess Psyche, throwing away his mother's entire plan. In the end, he got rid of the arrow and abandoned Aphrodite's intentions. Cupid knew very well the character of his mother. For that reason he decides to hide his love interest Psyche in the dark.
Psyche, despite not being able to see Eros's face because of the darkness, ended up falling in love with him just the same. On one occasion, the princess could no longer resist the desire to see the physical appearance of her beloved, so she lit a lamp. When she lit it, a drop of oil fell from the lamp and burned the face of her beloved.
Eros, somewhat enraged by what had happened, made the decision to abandon Princess Psyche and went far away. Psyche, however, is not willing to abandon her true love. That's why she decides to look for him desperately until she ends up in hell. Eros, still in love with him, went in search of his princess, who was in a coma because she had uncovered a chest full of "stygian sleep":
With a kiss he was able to "clean said dream from his eyes." The two promised never to be apart from each other again and they lived happily ever after.
myth and summary
According to what history expresses, immortalized by Apuleius in his Metamorphosis (The Golden Ass), Princess Psyche was considered the most beautiful and attractive among her three sisters. She, besides being the most beautiful, was also the youngest. These women were daughters of an Anatolian king.
Aphrodite, full of hatred and envy for Psyche's physical beauty, decides to send her son Eros (cupid) to launch an arrow against the princess. The point of that arrow was to make Psyche fall in love with the scariest and most horrible man in the kingdom. However, Eros fell in love with her and threw the arrow of the spell into the sea, when Psyche fell asleep, he flew her to her palace.
To try to avoid Aphrodite's fury, once he has the princess in his palace, Eros shows up all the time at night, in the middle of the dark. Eros forbids Psyche from trying to investigate any details about his identity. He prefers that she never see her true face. For now, they both love each other madly in the middle of the darkness.
On one occasion, Psyche told Eros that she missed her other two sisters very much and that she longed to see them again. Eros accepted the proposal of his lover, but he also warned her that her sisters would want to end her happiness. The next day, Psyche was reunited with her sisters, who enviously asked her who her husband was.
The princess did not know how to explain to her sisters who her husband was, since she had never seen his face. She had no choice but to say that he was a young man who was hunting, however she ended up confessing the whole truth. She told them that she really didn't know who her husband was.
Thus, the sisters of the princess, convinced her so that in the middle of the night, she would light a lamp and be able to observe the face of her lover. Her sisters told her that her husband could be a monster, since there was no other explanation for him to keep his identity hidden from him.
Psyche ends up falling for her sisters' game and decides to look for a lamp and turn it on, so she can see her husband's face. A drop of boiling oil fell on the sleeping Eros face. At that moment he wakes up and subscribes, disappointed, to his beloved princess.
When the princess realizes the mistake she has made, she begs Aphrodite to allow her to recover Eros's love, however the spiteful goddess orders her to do four tasks, practically impossible for a mortal, before recovering her lover. divine. In the end, beyond the disobedience on the part of the young woman, Eros decides to save him with a kiss from a deep and deadly sleep to which she had been punished.
Eros also interceded for her before Zeus to accept him on Olympus, thus becoming an immortal being.
Etymology of the word psyché
«The Greek verb ψύχω, psycho, means «to blow». From this verb the noun ψυχή is formed, which refers at first to the breath, breath or breath exhaled when the human being dies. Since this breath remains in the individual until his death, ψυχή comes to mean life ».
"When the psyche escapes from the corpse, it leads an autonomous existence: the Greeks imagined it as a winged, anthropomorphic figure, a double or eidolon of the deceased, who usually ended up in Hades, where it survived in a dark and ghostly way."
According to what Homer expresses on several occasions, the psyché flies out of the mouth of that being that dies, as if it were a butterfly (which in Greek is also written in the same way; psyché). For this reason, many people see a psychopomp in the butterfly.
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