Jacques-Louis David - Love and Psyche

• Title: Love and Psyche
• Artist: Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825)
• Date: 1817
• Medium: Oil on canvas
• Dimensions: 184 x 242 cm

David used the story of Cupid and Psyche to explore the conflict between idealized love and physical reality. Cupid, lover of the beautiful mortal Psyche, visited her nightly on the condition that she not know his identity. David presented Cupid as an ungainly teenager smirking at his sexual conquest.