The Ancient Way of Life

~Fresco Fragment with Cupids and Psyche Making Perfume. Artist/Maker: Unknown Culture: Roman Place: Italy (Place created) Date: 50 - 79 Medium: Fresco

Amor and Psyche (close-up). Marble. 2nd cent. CE, after a Greek model of the 2nd cent. BCE. Rome, Capitoline Museums, Palazzo Nuovo, Hall of the Gaul (Musei capitolini, Palazzo Nuovo, Sala di Gallo)

~Venus admonishing Cupid. Object: Tapestry Place of origin: Brussels (probably, made) Date: 1555-1565 (designed) Castello, Giovanni Battista (designed by) Materials and Techniques: Tapestry woven in wool and silk This tapestry probably belonged to a set of sixteen, though some are now untraceable. The subject is Venus admonishing Cupid, from the story of Cupid and Psyche, as related by the Latin author Lucius Apuleius in the Golden Ass. The V&A has two other tapestries from the set: Venus seeking vengeance on Psyche and Psyche's Punishment in Venus's Service. The story was a favourite pictorial theme during the Renaissance. The tapestry shows Venus reproaching her son, Cupid, for his affair with Psyche. The Goddess is seen entering from the left gesturing forcefully in an accusatory fashion, her billowing drapery accentuating the dynamism of her pose. In contrast, Cupid reclines on a bed with a chastised expression, his hand over his heart and his bow and quiver laid aside. The design for this tapestry, executed by Giovanni Battista Castello (1509-1569), and in the National Galleries of Scotland, shows Venus in a greater state of undress, indicating that when the tapestry came to be woven, the composition was altered to allow an extra fold of fabric to cover her form, resulting in a more modest display.