![]() ![]() The subject of a bather and the exquisite draughtsmanship clearly pay tribute to J.A.D. She is completely self-absorbed, and her narcissism is emphasised by her reflection, captured in the smooth surface of the water. The painting shows Psyche undressing herself in order to bathe before Cupid's arrival. He later abandoned Psyche when, encouraged by her jealous sisters, she gazed on his sleeping form by the light of a lamp and inadvertently dropped hot oil on his body. ![]() She lived there in a blissful state, waited on by slaves, and each night Cupid would make love to her, but without his identity being revealed. An oracle told her parents to dress her for marriage and sacrifice her, but she was transported instead to the golden palace of Cupid, the god of love. Psyche's beauty was so great that no man dared to approach her as a suitor. The story is related in the Roman poet Lucius Apuleius's Metamorphoses or The Golden Ass. The legend of Cupid and Psyche was extremely popular with writers and artists in the second half of the 19 th Century, and this picture is typical of the classical revival in Victorian art at this time. ![]()
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