MY WORLD 8

Antonio CANOVA: Eros i Psyche.  Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1787-1793.

Eros and Psyche is a group of white marble sculptures made at the end of the 18th century by the Italian artist Antonio Cánova.  It represents the passion and love of two characters in what is a rather "theatrical" and effective set, as shown by the impossible embrace in which the figures of Eros and Psyche are attempted to merge.  Antonio Canova is inspired by the art of Ancient Greece to create his works.  This sculpture was commissioned by the British colonel John Campbell (Lord Cawdor), although it was eventually acquired by the Dutch art dealer and collector Henry Hoppe and then ended up in the hands of the King of Naples and Napoleon's brother-in-law, Joachim Murat, who acquired it for display in his castle. 

This play represents the moment in which Eros, god of Love, comes to wake Psyche (Personification of the Soul), from the eternal dream in which she had been plunged, not waking up until she is kissed by her lover.  Psyche is represented lying on her right hip, the young woman turns back towards her beloved, the god Eros, who approaches to kiss her and encircles her body with one arm while with the other he holds her head while she encircles his neck with her hands. 

Story:

Eros and Psyche star in one of the most beautiful and tender stories of Greek mythology.  The wonderful story was immortalized in Apuleyo's "The Metamorphoses", also known as Apuleyo's "Golden Ass", the only complete Latin novel that remains.  The beautiful story tells that Psyche was the youngest and most beautiful of three sisters, daughters of the Kings of Anatolia.  The girl was so beautiful, that she provoked the jealousy of Aphrodite herself (Venus), the Goddess of beauty.  To take revenge on her competitor, Venus ordered her winged son Eros (Cupid), to visit the young girl and stick an evil arrow in her that would make her fall in love with the ugliest, cruelest and most detestable man in the underworld.  However, it was Eros who fell in love with her and shot the arrow into the sea.

Knowing what her mother was like, he decided to hide his beloved in the darkness, where the poor girl could not see her face, but still succumbed to the charms of her winged kidnapper.  But evidently, the girl could not resist her curiosity and one night she lit a lamp to see the face of Eros.  A drop of boiling oil fell from the lamp onto the face of the sleeping Eros, who in great anger leaves his lover for destroying his beautiful face.  Poor Psyche would stir up heaven and earth to return to Eros.  Psyche after inhaling the vapours of a potion enclosed in a vase which had been given to her by Proserpine, Goddess of the Inferno.  When she opened the jar, a cloud enveloped her and she fell into a deep sleep.

Eros, who was in love after all, went to see his beloved and with a kiss "wiped the sleep from his eyes", promising that he would never leave her.  Both would live happily ever after and even Aphrodite herself would dance on their wedding day.  A happy ending, which Canova, considered the best neoclassical sculptor and lover of everything that sounds Greek, would end up capturing with exquisite results in this spectacular sculpture.

Video about Eros and Psyche Story: https://youtu.be/tB5t057v-0o