Jacques-Louis DavidFrancia, 1748–1825Cupido y Psique
Cupid and Psyche
Sobre el cuadro
Amor y Psique o Cupido y Psique es una pintura de 1817 de Jacques-Louis David, ahora en el Museo de Arte de Cleveland. Fue realizada durante el exilio de David en Bruselas, para el mecenas y coleccionista Gian Battista Sommariva. En su primera exposición en el museo de Bruselas sorprendió a los espectadores por su tratamiento realista de la figura de Cupido. Los críticos en general vieron el estilo poco convencional de la pintura y la representación realista de Cupido como prueba del declive de David durante su exilio, pero los historiadores del arte han llegado a ver la obra como una desviación deliberada de los métodos tradicionales de representación de figuras mitológicas.
En palabras del museo
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.
Museo de Arte de Cleveland
Ficha
- Número de inventario
- 1962.37
Mientras tanto, en la vida de Jacques-Louis David
La vida entera1815
Flees to Switzerland after Waterloo
After Bonaparte’s defeat at Waterloo and the Bourbon restoration he was forced to flee to Switzerland; in August of the same year he returned to France.
1815
Napoleon visits David during the Hundred Days
During the Hundred Days Napoleon visited the painter and awarded him the commander’s cross of the Legion of Honour.
1816
Exile: moves to Brussels
Exiled from France for his part in the king’s execution, despite the intercession of the police minister Élie Decazes, he settled in Brussels, where he lived for the rest of his life.
1816–1825
The Brussels years: pupils and smaller works
He trained and influenced Brussels artists such as François-Joseph Navez and Ignace Brice, painted “Cupid and Psyche,” smaller mythological scenes, portraits of Brussels citizens and Napoleonic émigrés, and, towards the end of his life, a portrait of his old friend Abbé Sieyès.
