Orazio Gentileschi - Cupid and Psyche (late 1610s)

Title: Cupid and Psyche
Artist: Orazio Gentileschi (1563-1639)
Date: late 1610s
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 137 x 160 cm
Location: Hermitage museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Photo credit: Ealdgyth on Wikimedia in 2010 taken at The Hermitage Museurm

Orazio Gentileschi’s "Cupid and Psyche" shows Cupid and Psyche brought together in a quiet, intimate discussion. They are sitting on a bed, talking to each other, quite close but not touching each other, in front of a dark, undefined background. Gentileschi bathes the couple in a warm, focused light that pulls them forward out of the surrounding gloom--a chiaroscuro technique.

Their flesh is modeled with great smoothness and care, catching the highlights against the darker folds of Psyche’s drapery and Cupid’s shadowed torso. Cupid is mostly nude except for a piece of drapery at his hips; his wings and quiver mark him unmistakably as the god of love. Psyche, by contrast, is fully robed in soft, flowing garments, turned slightly away yet glancing back over her shoulder toward him.

The tension of the scene comes from their respective hesitant gaze and posture and open mouths, captured as they are talking to each other. The scene is that of two people having a private conversation ; those two people are very familiar but not necessarily a couple. And nothing is sensual or erotic.

The background is deliberately vague so that nothing distracts from the dialogue between the two protagonists.