In 1787, Antonio Canova sculpted a masterpiece crafted around a love story; Psyche Revived by Cupids Kiss. A king had three daughters, his youngest, Psyche, the most beautiful of them all. Venus, the goddess of beauty, was jealous of Psyche. She ordered Cupid to avenger her and eliminate Psyche so she would once again be the most beautiful. However, when Cupid saw Psyche he fell in love with her. Every night, Cupid made love to Psyche without ever revealing his identity until one night she lit a lamp to look at him. When Cupid found out his identity was revealed, he fled. Psyche spent numerous days searching for her lost love. Venus, still jealous of Psyche’s beauty, ordered her to do many things in hope of eliminating her. She sent Psyche …show more content…
The piece was built around the love story of Cupid and Psyche and the moment when love overpowered everything, even death. In the sculpture, Canova captures two sides of love; its incredible strength and its fragility and tenderness. The power of love is displayed through the base, the position of the couple, and the body language of the figures. The base of the sculpture is a rock, a solid, unbreakable form. The couple, placed on the rock, is positioned in a pyramid, one of the sturdiest structures. Psyche’s figure appears to be weak, but Cupid, though he has no defined muscles, has an athletic build. Theirs arms are an excellent example of strength as they surround each other in a firm embrace. Cupid’s arms hold the majority of Psyche’s weight as he pulls her toward his body and Psyche’s arms are firm as she wraps them around Cupid’s head. The strength of love in this sculpture is not found in the visible fitness of the couple, but in their actions. Cupid exhibits something similar to hysterical strength, which is the strength that occurs when someone is in a life or death situation. In this case, Psyche is facing death. This strength that Cupid experiences can be seen in the way the muscles in his legs are bulging forth and his feet are digging into the stone beneath him. This strength is followed by an unforgettable tenderness. The fragility and tenderness in the statue is seen most prominently in the couple’s hands. Within …show more content…
While the figures are fully exposed, their bodies naked and their emotions pouring out of them, their faces are partially hidden away. There is no particular angle to perfectly view the couple’s faces at the same time. Canova critic, Karl Ludwig Fernow,
"PSYCHE : Greek Goddess of the Soul | Mythology, Psykhe, W/ Pictures." THEOI GREEK MYTHOLOGY, Exploring Mythology & the Greek Gods in Classical Literature & Art. Web. 8 Oct. 2011. .
The artwork is very interesting as the painting is very detailed and have a strong sense of symbolism behind the center piece. The content of the Monument to Mignard can be looked at a grieving woman thinking about her husband on a platform of a monument. There is two cupids grieving to the left of the man and in front of the woman. One cupid sitting on the edge of the platform clutching a dead bird on its arm, symbolizing that there is death between the two lovers. The other cupid that is standing up crying holding its right hand against the side of the man, which symbolize that the man has passed away and not among the living. There is an angel looking down at the vicinity of the man, woman, and the two cupids. The angel himself could be the angel of death, which takes the dead to heaven. The painting takes place inside building that is probably around the roman era because of the perfect arches and their integration of the Greek Doric columns. There is a total of eight columns, four on each side that supports the arch in the upper middle par...
Andrea Schiavone devised a strategy to distinguish himself from the master painters before him. This style is marked by a sense on incompleteness and feathery brushwork. The painting The Marriage of Cupid and Psyche shows Schiavone at his best because it is the perfect example of the harmony between Titian and Parmigianino. The sinuous lines depicted in the painting give it a lot of sex appeal, while his heavy-duty paint handling keeps it from cloying. In this work Schiavone forces you think past the accepted notions of what is right, and instead focus on the beauty that lies past right and wrong. The painting itself is of Venetian origins, dating back to 1550. It is composed of oil on wood and it was originally octagonal in shape. The corners were add...
Sculpture is a medium that artists in ancient Greek commonly used to express spoken truths in an unspoken form. Every piece of ancient Greek sculpture has more than what the eye sees to explain the story behind the [in this case] marble.
Till We Have Faces, a novel by C.S. Lewis, uses the love story of Cupid and Psyche as a foundation for a new tale set in the kingdom of Glome. The story is narrated by Princess Orual, the eldest of three sisters, who is limited by her “ugliness,” battered by her abusive father, and tormented by a love for her youngest sister, the beautiful goddess-like Psyche. It is Orual’s love and need for love that eventually sets a painful spiral of events in motion.
Because this painting was completed during the Neoclassicism art movement, Lagreneé does an excellent job of giving attention to detail in the room of Cupid and Psyche to portray the expressions of the sleeping Cupid while Psyche is about to realize who the man she has been sleeping with truly is. The bright hues utilized in this painting seem to draw the attention of the viewer to Cupid before Psyche to help portray the importance of Cupid being asleep while Psyche seeks to discover who he is. Lagreneé does an excellent job of showing the two levels of trust that the two characters have in each other by showing Cupid spread out in the bed, completely at the will of his lover, while she disobeys his one request of
When beginning my sketch, I took a moment to analyze the work of art and found that the statue illuminated a sense of serenity. Like most viewers my initial reaction was to explore the statue from head to toe as I sought out the different elements and principles of art. The statue was close to life-size and just about my height, so looking straightforward we were eye to eye. I noticed the softness gathered about the facial structure, but all the same time the depth and complexity that was engulfed around the muscularity of the body. The rigorous symmetry was accounte...
...e sexual union between him and the woman. The couple is also wearing jewelry that symbolizes their sexual power and union as a whole. This particular piece of art shows how the physical appearance of a human is not needed to show sexual characteristics. The pieces are completely different in appearance, but the idea of sexual representation is fully shown throughout each piece.
‘The representation of the human form likewise served to stress essential data about the subject. The shoulders are nearly in frontal view to show the width of the body and not obscure the far arm, while the chest was represented in profile to show its contour…....
The image that has been produced over time about the Goddess of Desire, the renowned Aphrodite, is one of a longhaired beauty, riding atop a scallop shell to bestow her beauteous wonders upon the mortal earth and Olympus. This is an icon of femininity and perfection, the most stunning of the already statuesque gods and goddesses. Doves and sparrows are her counterparts as is the sweet and playful Cupid in later Roman myths. However, this seemingly flawless picture of delicacy and sensual delights is far from perfect. In fact, when looked at a little more closely, the mien of Aphrodite becomes distorted, her beauty playing out to actually be her curse. In the next pages we will delve into the true nature of the Love Goddess, contemplate the source of her ‘deeds’ and then determine how high a pedestal she actually rests upon.
Yuny and Renenutet is a two figure statue. It’s a double portrait with a frontal pose. It’s a relief sculpture with a male and female figure. Yuny and Renenutet are husband and wife. They are sitting down together on a bench. It’s a beach that highlights their bodies’ curves emphasizing their wealth. Both figures have nontraditional customs, but a more a fashionable custom. The chair that Yuny and Renenutet are seated is elegantly decorated. On the back of the chair, we see two scenes divided into two layers with inscription around it.
In Till We Have Faces, C. S. Lewis retells the myth of Cupid and Psyche from the point of view of Psyche's sister, with powerful insight into the nature of human affection and the relationship between human and divine. In the original myth, Psyche is the youngest of three princesses, so beautiful that men begin to worship her instead of Venus. The goddess avenges herself by commanding that Psyche be exposed on a mountain to die, but her son Cupid secretly rescues her, having fallen in love with her. He hides her in a palace where he visits her nightly, but he forbids her to see his face for fear of his mother. After a time Psyche is granted a visit from her sisters; seeing the splendor of her palace, they are jealous. They tell her that her "husband" must be some horrible monster, and they persuade her to disobey the god's command and light a lamp while he sleeps, to see if it is not so. This she does, but he wakes and rebukes her, and she goes into exile to be tested until worthy of her husband. Lewis's retelling makes the god's palace invisible to mortal eyes; thus Psyche's sister Orual, the narrator of the tale, can insist it is not jealousy but concern for Psyche that motivates her to act as she does. Told from Orual's point of view, the story shows her journey to self-discovery and understanding--her quest to find her face, for as she learns, the gods cannot "meet us face to face till we have faces"--until we know our own selves. Faces are thus a strong source of imagery and symbolism in the book. One's face is a reflection of one's soul and true character. It is, symbolically, one's identity. The faces of Orual and Psyche, of Ungit and her son the God of the Grey Mountain, give us insight into their ...
a shift can be seen from idealized and nearly perfect sculptures to sculptures that had a natural and real feel to them. These newer statues were sculpted with the notion of Realism weighing more than the concept of Idealism. The subjects’ body was not in a state of military attention, they were placed in a more natural, yet still graceful position. Realistic sculptures also did not embellish the muscular physique of the subject; the muscle definition was displayed more subtly and naturally. The weight of Realistic statues is not distributed in a balanced, geometric fashion like the Ideal statues. The Realistic statues balance their weight just as a real person would in motion which gives the sculpture a more graceful and natural
The sculpture is a good example of the recurring trends and subjects that were prevalent in the art of the Hellenistic period. Darker subjects, such as death, pain and sorrow, were just as popular as the more optimistic themes of patriotism, courage, and heroism. Usually these themes were explored in relation to intense events such as wars. Interestingly, the sculpture of the dying Gaul touches on themes related to pain, suffering, valor, patriotism, and death at the same time. Even though the agony communicates visibly to the viewer by the crooked lines on the dying Gaul’s forehead, painful eyes, its genital...
Many artists started experimenting with new styles of art throughout the Baroque Ages to the present time. These paintings and sculptures were famous for the detailed work and the beauty of art. To define male beauty, these arts have simplified the creativity in masculinity. For centuries, the art of male beauty has been constantly changing and the portrayal of men has become more feminine in many artworks. These changes in these artworks were caused by the increase of time that has passed and the occurrences that had influenced people to associate these experiences through their masterpieces. It is known that mainly known that artists like to express their emotions and show their imaginations that can easily show the meanings in a visual display. By having a representation of each masterpiece, the work to provide the visual views of male beauty can mostly be found through paintings and sculptures that revolves during each era.