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| PSYCHE - This painting was the work of Paul
Thaumann,
and was hung in the German section of the Art Palace. The story of
Psyche is related by Apuleius, a Latin author of the second century
who lived on the African coast near Carthage. Psyche was the
youngest of three daughers of a king and queen, and Cupid fell in
love with her. She was so beautiful that the people worshiped her as
a second Venus, much to the chagrin of that goddess, who called her
son Cupid, and ordered him to inspire Psyche with a passion for some
abject and loathsome wretch. Meantime other dangers menaced the
beautiful creature, for her father, guided by an oracle, placed her
on a rock to perish because she had never gained a suitor for her
hand. Cupid removes her on a zephyr to the palace in which the
painting reveals her, and then the sorrows of the pair begin, with
the sisters betraying Psyche, and Venus pursuing her through the
world, and even sending her to the infernal regions to visit
Proserpina. In the end, however, Cupid makes bold to sue at the feet
of Jupiter on Olympus, all is forgiven, Psyche is immortalized, Venus
is reconciled, and a wedding with extraordinary festivities follows
in the skies. It is not difficult to espy the general machinery of
"Cinderella" in this plot, and doubtless both stories had the same
source. The beauty of the tale of Psyche, as told by Apuleius, has
been much admired, and many separate editions have been issued. |
