Looking at the Masters: Cupid Exposed by Beverly Hall Smith

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. Cupid, the god of desire, will be circling with his arrows. Cupid has been painted and sculpted by numerous European masters, numerous times.  He most often is represented as a slightly chubby child. He has curly hair, and he has a smile that melts hearts, particularly on Valentine’s Day. In Greek he is Eros, in Latin he is Amor, but in any western language he is a scamp, both loveable and mischievous. To understand the version of Cupid being depicted in a work of art, it is helpful to know the particular story the artist has followed. It could be from Ovid’s Metamorphosis, Apuleius’s Golden Ass, the specific desire of a patron, or the imagination of the artist.  

“The Dangerous Cupid” (manufactured by Sevres from 1757 until 1766) (11.75’’ with base) is a direct copy in porcelain of the marble sculpture by the French artist Etienne Maurice Falconet (1716-1791). The famous Marquise de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XV of France, commissioned the sculpture. The original marble sculpture was the sensation of the 1757 Paris Salon, and it was immediately regarded as “The Dangerous Cupid.” Cupid sits on a cloud and looks down on the mortals below.  His finger to his lips, he cautions viewers to be silent, because he is about to pick an arrow from his quiver and shoot it at an unsuspecting person. But which arrow? One of his arrows is gold and will arouse passion and desire, and it will cause its target to fall in love. The other arrow is lead, and it will kill passion and desire and create only loathing. Cupid shot his arrows at both mortals and the gods.

“The Dangerous Cupid” is one of the most famous pieces of 18th Century sculpture. In the same year as the Salon success, Falconet was appointed director of the sculpture workshop of the new Manufacture royale de porcelain at Sevres. The first porcelain figurines made at Sevres were Falconet’s “Cupid” and “Psyche.” Rather than the 18.75’’ marble that was exhibited in the Salon, the Sevres version depicted here is for a table top, and it has a gold trimmed base decorated with a flower garland and an inscription in French: “Whoever you are, behold your master, he is, was, or must be.” These popular figures were produced from 1757 until 1766.  Each bore an ‘F’ signature.

  Beware the anger of Cupid. According to a legend of the early 4th Century BCE, Apollo was one of the most worshipped and important of the Greek gods. He was the god of the sun, crops and herds, music, poetry, dance, truth, healing, and he was the patron of archers. Even the other Olympian gods were cautious around him. Apollo made fun of Cupid’s bow, laughed and ridiculed the limits of such a small weapon, particularly compared to his own prowess with his bow. Cupid was so insulted and angered that despite Apollo’s greater powers, he took his revenge. Apollo had long been in love with the water nymph Daphne, but she had vowed to remain celibate and repeatedly refused his suit. Cupid shot Apollo with the golden arrow of desire and Daphne with the one of lead.

Bernini’s “Apollo and Daphne” (1622-23) (marble 95.6’’) is a marvelous depiction of the story told in Ovid’s Metamorphosis.  After engaging in a long race with Daphne, the handsome Apollo is about to win his love. His left hand grasps Daphne by the waist, and his right hand is about to reach out to pull his beloved toward him. Daphne, still running and struggling to get away, cries out to her father the River God Peneus to save her: “Help me, Peneus! Open the earth to enclose me, or change my form, which has brought me into this danger! Let me be free of this man from this moment forward!” Peneus answers her plea, and “a heavy numbness seizes her limbs; her soft breasts are surrounded by a thin bark, her hair changes into foliage, her arms change into branches; her foot, just now swift, now clings to sluggish roots.” [Ovid]

 

Bernini’s artistry brings every detail of the story into an emotional and moving reality. The viewer sees her cry for help, the bark enclosing her legs, the ends of her flying hair and the tips of her fingers becoming tree branches with leaves. Her toes take root in the earth. Bernini’s treatment of marble depicts textures, unlike the Renaissance tradition of a smoothed surface. The viewer can experience feeling the soft human flesh next to the rough texture of tree bark.

The art of the Baroque period (c.1600-1740’s), of which Bernini is considered to be the foremost master, draws the viewer into the very heart of the story, at the very moment of the most intense action and emotion. Apollo realizes the human Daphne is lost to him forever, her father having changed her into a laurel tree. Apollo embraces the laurel tree and vows Daphne would be with him forever because the laurel is an evergreen. In the myth, Apollo wove the leaves and berries of the laurel into a crown. The laurel wreath became a sign of victory. It is used today to recognize wisdom and heroes. The bouquet of flowers given to winning athletes in the Olympics has replaced the laurel wreath.

In Lucius Apuleius’s Golden Ass (late 2nd Century CE), the young mischievous cupid has grown up. Cupid’s mother Venus, goddess of beauty, is jealous of a beautiful mortal named Psyche, whose beauty is praised and worshipped by her community. Venus sends Cupid to shoot Psyche with an arrow to make her fall in love with the lowliest of humans. However, one look at Psyche and Cupid falls madly in love. He arranges to come to her at night, make love to her in the dark, and lavish beautiful gifts upon her. However, she must never see him or know his name. Eventually her curiosity becomes too great, and with a trick, she sees her lover. He immediately disappears. Pleading with the gods, and Venus, she is given several impossible tasks to complete so she and Cupid can be reunited. 

 “Cupid and Psyche” (1786-1822) by Venetian sculptor Antonio Canova (1757-1822) depicts the end of the last and most difficult task. Venus has tasked Psyche to bring her a flask from Persephone, goddess of the underworld, containing the Treasure of Divine Beauty. Warned not to open the flask, Psyche, like Pandora, cannot resist. Persephone had put into the flask The Sleep of Innermost Darkness, the Night of Styx. Psyche immediately becomes “a corpse asleep.” Canova depicts Cupid finding Psyche in this condition. Cupid knows how to awaken her. He kneels down and gently embraces her. With his power as a god, he brings Psyche back to consciousness. As she wakes up, she sweeps her arms around his neck to embrace him. They kiss.

Canova was a master of the Neo-Classical period (c.1780-1840’s).  Neo-classical artists returned to the ideals of the Greek Classical style. The figures are perfectly proportioned, and the characters are intellectually in control of the situation, not caught up in strong emotions as in the Baroque period. The marble is smoothed and polished to a soft glow. The composition is a stable triangle, and the figures are gracefully posed, covered with silken drapery. The situation is not active, but calm. Canova has carved slight texture on Cupid’s wings, but it is not deeply cut and forms gentle curls. The kiss is unhurried and exquisitely tender. 

When Canova visited Herculaneum in 1787, he saw a 1st Century CE wall painting of “Cupid and Psyche” in the House of Terence.  This painting served as the influence for his sculpture. Canova made several drawings of the subject, but he eventually used the composition from the Roman painting. Western artists continually used ancient literary sources for their works. To reach a fuller understanding of a work of art beyond the unique talents of its master, the viewer should know the story.

May the golden arrow of Cupid find your heart. Happy Valentine’s Day. 

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown six years ago, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL and Chesapeake College’s Institute for Adult Learning.  She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.