#apuleius

Psyche Opening the Door into Cupid’s Garden (1904), by J.W. Waterhouse 

One year after “Psyche Opening the Golden Box”, Waterhouse paints Psyche again and he chose to paint the same woman wearing the same clothes.  Here she is shown entering a secret garden – one of the soul and the heart - where she will meet Cupid.  Cupid was given the task to make her fall in love with a monster, but after scratching himself to his own arrow, he immediately falls in love with the beautiful Psyche.  He does however not want her to see his face in daylight so that is why they meet and make love only in the darkness of night.

The story was retold by Apuleius, a Numidian author living in the Roman Empire, but scenes where already illustrated on much older Greek vases.  Many painters have painted Psyche and Cupid naked together in bed, but Waterhouse honours the original meaning by leaving Cupid invisible.  It took him nevertheless four years to sell this painting.