Hendrick Goltzius: The Feast of the Gods at the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche (1587)

(Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA)

An engraving by the Dutch artist Hendrick Goltzius (1558 – 1617). This large plate depicts a love story from the Roman novel Metamorphoses, written in the 2nd century AD by Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis. According to the tale, Psyche was the most beautiful woman in the world and envied by everyone, including the goddess Venus. An oracle of Venus tells that Psyche must be sent to a mountaintop where she must wed a murderous beast. Cupid, the son of Venus, was sent by Venus to the mountaintop to kill Pysche but instead he falls in love with her and takes her away to his castle. In the castle she is instructed to never seek the face of her lover (= Cupid) who visits her in the dark of the night. When Psyche invites her sisters to the castle, they demand to know the identity of the lover of Psyche and she seeks him out when he is sleeping. Cupid however wakes up and, infuriated, he abandons Psyche and flies away. Psyche tries to atone herself and offers herself as a slave to Venus. The goddess instructs Psyche to four impossible tasks which Psyche manages to complete. During the fourth tasks she falls into a coma and is rescued by Cupid. The two are united and Psyche is taken to Olympus were a large wedding takes place with all the Gods as the wedding guests (shown here on this engraving). Engraving from 1587.