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Universal Polarities (Painting by Boris Vallejo)

Psyche In a Faint

By Pietro Tenerani, 1869

Italy, first half of the 19th century In his Metamorphoses, the Roman writer Apuleius relates how Cupid fell in love with Psyche, but his mother Venus was jealous of the girl's beauty and persecuted her. Venus sent Psyche into the Underworld for a flask containing Proserpina's beauty ointment, with strict instructions not to open it.

"Am not I a foole, that knowing that I carrie here the divine beauty, will not take a little thereof to garnish my face, to please my love withall?"

The girl could not contain her curiosity and opened the flask, immediately falling into a faint, or deep sleep.

The graceful form, the noble and harmonious lines, the careful working of the marble surface, all inherent features of the work of Tenerani, brought this sculpture great fame, and the artist repeated the figure at least seven times.

(Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.)

Thunderbirds, 1965