The Cleveland Museum of Art has this painting, and I’ve learned that no one knows who the model for Psyche was.
The model for Cupid was a teenage boy, and since the two of them modeled separately, he never saw the model of played Pysche, or even the finished painting. We know this from letters that the museum has, because the teenage boy became rather obsessed with this beautiful, forbidden, unobtainable girl.
Advertisements
It’s difficult for artists to integrate models that aren’t actually together. It’s a fun story about the male model, but David really should have spent at least one session with them both. The lines where they connect would be much better. As it is, it looks like the male is simply superimposed on the female.
Really cool art posts. 🙂