"With a pretty whisper" : deception and transformation in David's Cupid and Psyche and Apuleius's Metamorphoses

Author

Vidal, Mary

Document type

Article (journal)

Language

English

Source

Art history. 1999, Num. 2, Vol. 22, 214-243, 329, 12 ill.

ISSN

0141-6790

Abstract (en)

Although generally dismissed as superficial, David's late Cupid and Psyche (Cleveland Museum of Art) discloses intellectual and moral aims. Comparisons with the image's literary model, Apuleius's Metamorphoses, and with the symbolic system of Speculative Freemasonry, bring out David's turn to an allegorical, heuristic didacticism in his late years. As in Apuleius's parallel stories of Lucius and Psyche, the erotic subject and disjunctive style of the painting alternately hide and convey a delayed experience of spiritual metamorphosis. Completed when the artist was 70 years old and in exile, Cupid and Psyche is David's meditation on the difficult journey of life and the passage towards death.

Subject (en)

• General history of art -- 1800-1945 -- Pictorial arts -- Painting and drawing -- France
• David, Jacques-Louis, 1748-1825
• Painting
• France
• 1800-1900
• Cleveland Museum of Art||Cleveland (OH, USA)
• Cupid and Psyche
• Iconography
• Cupid
• Psyche (mythical figure)
• Metamorphoses
• Sources
• Freemasonry
• Symbolism

Subject (fr)

• Histoire générale de l'art -- 1800-1945 -- Peinture et arts graphiques -- Peinture et dessin -- France
• David, Jacques-Louis, 1748-1825
• Peinture
• France
• 1800-1900
• Cleveland Museum of Art||Cleveland (OH, USA)
• Cupidon et Psyché
• Iconographie
• Cupidon
• Psyché
• Métamorphoses
• Sources
• Franc-maçonnerie
• Symbolisme

Origin

DatabaseBHA (Inist-CNRS/GRI)

Identifier19991001-00211134

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