For the Love of Art: The Art History and Myth of Venus and Cupid

We've all heard stories about Roman and Greek mythology from our childhoods. Thoughts of them perhaps forgotten except once a year in February, when Cupid, the Roman God of desire, affection and erotic love is again in our minds, and in mass amounts of advertising. Did Venus, the Roman God of love, sex, beauty and fertility know her son Cupid's destiny? What of her own? So for the love of gods in art, lets start off by learning how Venus shaped art history and later dive into Cupid's own love story and his wife Psyche.

Roman and Greek gods are sometimes used interchangeably or mixed up even though they aren't the same God or worshipped by the same people. Venus and Aphrodite for example are both thought to be the God of love and beauty, whereas Cupid's Greek counterpart is Eros. I want to clarify that because Aphrodite and/or Venus is thought to be the first ever nude depiction in sculpture, and art historians lump sculptures with either title together. In these sculptures, Venus started out fully dressed and eventually became less reserved and less clothed in later works. In "Capitoline Venus" from Rome, her robe lays on a vase next to her but she still covers her private areas with her hands. A less modest nude pose of her for example would be "Statuette of Aphrodite" from Rhodes, where her arms are spread wide holding out the hair on her head, as if she is washing her hair, or just stretching. It is speculated that using a god's name for a nude sculpture was actually just an alibi to allow the viewer to gaze respectably onto the naked form, which gives a kind of humorous view of how many Venus and Aphrodite sculptures there are thought to be out there (somewhere in the thousands). My favorite sculpture of her is "Venus de Milo" followed by "Crouching Venus" both of which are by artists unknown from the late second or first century B.C., they both have arms missing and the second even has parts of the head and back damaged. Historians believe that "Crouching Venus" may have originally had a baby cupid attached to the back of the sculpture where pieces are missing.

To add some color to this mythological love post, it'll surprise you to learn that a lot of Classical Greek and Roman sculptures thought to be stark white weren't white after all. Almost all of them were actually very colorful, had painted designs, and some were even covered in gold leaf. Since all that remained of the sculptures and architecture was the white marble, people developed a romanticized idea of a "pristine white classical world, where colors were frivolous and showy" and didn't want to be told otherwise. Victoria Finlay reveals in her book that

"When ancient marble treasures were dug up in Greece and Italy from the 15th century onward, dealers would scrape the pieces down with scalpels (or worse, wash them in an acid bath) to get rid of any paint and reveal the clean, white marble underneath. And when wealthy patrons, in the Renaissance and afterward, commissioned new sculptures in what they considered "classical" style, they wanted no paint at all."

When archaeological procedures became the new standard for digging up artifacts, this discovery of colorful classical sculpture was made. In the 1880s an exhibition was even held to show viewers how colorful these sculptures were by painting plaster casts of original works of art. Crowds of visitors came to this exhibition, eager to re-envision their ideas of art history.

Like the exhibitions that attracted tons of people, a certain mythological character was believed to draw crowds of strangers...

Psyche was a mortal woman, born to a king and queen. Her beauty was so famous that people from all around would congregate to soak in and even pay respect to her good looks. The people even stopped worshiping the god Venus and turned their devotion instead to Psyche. Venus, who found her shrines vacant and learned of Psyche, became enraged with jealously and ordered her son Cupid to embarrass and force the offender Psyche to repent.

"My dear son, punish that contumacious beauty; give thy mother a revenge as sweet as her injuries are great; infuse into the bosom of that haughty girl a passion for some low, mean, unworthy being, so that she may reap a mortification as great as her present exultation and triumph."

Cupid following orders, goes to Psyche as she slept and does as his mother asks but in the process is so startled by her beauty that he undoes his curse. However a different type of curse takes place over Psyche, who is still praised for her looks but is unloved, lonely, and unmarried. Her parents consult an oracle who says their daughter is destined to be the bride of "no mortal man but of a monster". The monster of course turns out to be none other than Cupid himself. However, Psyche does not know this. Cupid has taken his bride in secret despite his mother's hatred and only goes to Psyche in the night and refuses her to see the face of her husband. Cupid:

"Why should you wish to behold me? Have you any doubt of my love? Have you any wish ungratified? If you saw me, perhaps you would fear me, perhaps adore me, but all I ask of you is to love me. I would rather you would love me as an equal than adore me as a god."

Psyche lives happily and loves her husband despite never looking upon him but eventually becomes too tempted. After disobeying him and seeing his face, he says "Love cannot dwell with suspicion" and casts her away back to earth where she goes mad looking for her husband who she discovered was no hideous monster but a handsome god. She even turns to Venus to repent in hopes of getting Cupid back. Venus gives Psyche many different tasks to complete to earn back her favor but Psyche eventually succumbs to her mortal curiosity again and opens a box said to hold the beauty of Proserpine, but which actually contained an imprisoned "Stygian sleep" which possesses and kills her. Cupid, no longer wounded by the wife he loves takes her body to the other Gods who grant her immortality. Finally equals, they stay united forever and eventually have a daughter named Pleasure.

There are many works of art depicting the marriage or story of Cupid and Psyche. Psyche is meant to represent the human soul for in Greek 'psyche' means 'soul'. They also call butterflies 'psyche' in Greek, so the next time you see a butterfly in the spring you can think of it as Psyche breaking out of her suffered human form into blissful immortality. It should also be noted that in some works of art Psyche is depicted with wings of a butterfly, in case you are ever wondering who it is flying around with Cupid.

Even the Gods it seems don't always have an easy life, but the myths of Greek and Rome do provide us with beautiful stories, morals, and artwork. Maybe the story of Psyche teaches us to be happy with what we have, to have trust in loved ones, that beauty doesn't equal happiness, or perhaps to just not piss off the gods. Whatever moral you take out of it, I hope this Valentines Day this post makes you yearn for not just romantic love, but of other loves, a love of reading and imagination, a love of life and the many creations it holds.

Sources for this post:

Oxford History of Art: Classical Art from Greece to Rome

by Mary Beard and John Henderson

Myths of Greece and Rome

by Thomas Bulfinch

The Brilliant History of Color in Art

by Victoria Finlay