Amor e Psiquê

Van Dyck painted this around 1639 or 1640, near the end of his life, while he was court painter to Charles I in London. It is the only mythological picture that survives from those English years. The story is from an old Roman novel. Psyche, a mortal woman loved by the god Cupid, has been set an impossible last task by his jealous mother Venus, and warned not to open the box she carries. She opens it anyway. Instead of beauty, out comes a deathlike sleep, and Cupid rushes in to wake her. Van Dyck catches that instant. Psyche lies collapsed on the grass, Cupid landing beside her on soft wings. The paint is thin in places and the picture feels unfinished, which fits its story. It was meant to be one of a whole series for the queen's house at Greenwich, a project that fell apart before it was done.