Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss, Neoclassical marble sculpture in the Michelangelo Gallery, Louvre Museum, Paris, France
Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss is a white marble group by Antonio Canova in the Louvre's Michelangelo Gallery. Cupid, winged and wearing a quiver on a strap, supports the reclining Psyche, one hand under her head and arm, as she lifts her arms toward him; a cloth drapes her lower body over a rough base. The jar and arrow of the Apuleius tale lie beside her.
Italian sculptor Antonio Canova created the work between 1787 and 1793 on commission from English art collector John Campbell. The sculpture emerged during a time when artists turned again to themes and forms from Greek and Roman antiquity.
The subject comes from Apuleius' Latin novel The Golden Ass: Psyche opens the jar of Proserpina and falls into an infernal sleep, and Cupid wakes her with a prick of his arrow. The jar and the arrow lie beside her on the base, and a quiver hangs at Cupid's waist. John Keats saw the marble and wrote his Ode to Psyche in 1819.
The sculpture stands in the Michelangelo Gallery and can be viewed from all sides, allowing visitors to see details from every angle. A brief stop in front of the work is enough to appreciate the expressiveness of the posture and the delicacy of the marble surface.
Canova worked with different surface treatments to set the smooth skin of the figures apart from the rough parts of the rock and the soft folds of the cloth. This technique gives the scene spatial depth and makes the touch between the two figures especially memorable.
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