
Cupid and Psyche
Jan Muller
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Between 1597 and 1606, Jan Muller made a number of large-scale engravings after Bartholomeus Spranger, the court painter to Emperor Rudolf II. Like the present work all were mythological subjects with erotic themes or overtones, and Muller used a dynamic swelling and tapering line to capture the mannered poses and exaggerated musculature of the subjects. According to the inscription at the lower right, the composition is based on a terracotta relief made by Spranger. The print illustrates an early moment from the story of Cupid and Psyche, as recounted by the second century provincial Roman writer Apuleius. Psyche was a young woman whose beauty was such that it rivaled that of Venus, the goddess of love, and so infuriated her that she sent her son Cupid to punish the girl. His intention was to make Psyche fall in love with some hideous creature, but he pricked himself with one of his own magical arrows and fell in love himself. In the scene here Cupid stands gazing adoringly at the sleeping figure of Psyche. He has dropped his bow and a small genius (a winged figure who serves the god) is helping him take off his quiver while another douses a torch to bring the room into darkness.
Drawings and Prints
An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.