The abduction of Psyche

Bouguereau painted this in 1895, near the end of a long career and at a moment when the polished academic style he stood for was already being pushed aside by the Impressionists. He kept to the old subjects and the old finish. Here Cupid carries Psyche up into the air, her butterfly wings an old symbol of the soul and of immortality. The title in English says abduction, but that is a rough rendering of the French enlevement, which can just mean being carried off or swept up, and Psyche's calm, almost blissful face fits that gentler reading. One small detail rewards a closer look. Cupid, the god who usually shoots lovers with his arrows, has arrived without his bow. He has found the one he wants and no longer needs it.