Rodin Works: Cupid and Psyche |
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According to most sources, Psyche was the youngest of three daughters of a mortal king; in other versions she was the daughter of Phoebus-Apollo and Endelechia (the ripeness of Time). She was so extraordinary beautiful that people began to neglect their service to Venus, the proper Goddess of Beauty. Venus grew jealous of
Psyche and instructed her son Cupid (or Amor) to shoot Psyche with
one of his arrows. This should make her fall in love
with Compared to the exasperate couples from 'The Gates of Hell', mostly unable to really reach each other, and later groups like 'Christ and Mary Magdalen', 'The Fallen Angel' or 'Death of Adonis', dealing with death, sorrow and consolation, 'Cupid and Psyche' in all versions appears idyllic, smooth and complaisant. With the last-mentioned version, 'Psyché et l'Amour', it appears as if Rodin in his last years of active modelling has recurred once more to his 'Idyll of Ixelles'.
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In 1898, when
The
story of Cupid and Psyche is rather a fairy tale than a myth and relates
how Love and the Soul had to overcome a series of adversary conditions before
they finally could be united.
the most despicable creature on earth. But Cupid, upon seeing the
pretty princess, fell in love with her himself. After long and complicated
adventures, the young couple finally
found to each other.
