Cupid and Psyche1817
David used the story of Cupid and Psyche to explore the conflict between idealized love and physical reality. More about this work
About this work
David used the story of Cupid and Psyche to explore the conflict between idealized love and physical reality. Cupid, lover of the beautiful mortal Psyche, visited her nightly on the condition that she not know his identity. Cupid was usually depicted as an ideal adolescent, but here David presents him as an ungainly teenager smirking at his sexual conquest. David took inspiration from a number of ancient texts, including an obscure, recently published Greek poem by Moschus that describes Cupid as a mean-spirited brat with flashing eyes and curly hair.
Text from the Cleveland Museum of Art.
How it was made
- Oil paint
- Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.
Jacques-Louis David
French, 1748–1825 · Born in Paris; died in Brussels.
David was the leading painter of French Neoclassicism. After winning the Prix de Rome he studied antiquity in Italy, and in the 1780s produced severe, moralising history paintings such as The Oath of the Horatii and The Death of Socrates. During the Revolution he was a deputy who voted for the king’s execution and painted The Death of Marat; he later became first painter to Napoleon. After the Bourbon restoration he lived in exile in Brussels, where he died.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Cleveland Museum of Art has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1962.37
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
- Type
- Painting
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
