Cupid and Psyche by Antonio Canova
There are four different kinds of love. There's the love of a parent, the love of a brother, the love of a friend...
This is the fourth kind of love. It is Antoni Canova’s sculpture entitled Cupid and Psyche. It can be admired on many levels. The marble surfaces are pure and clean and expertly carved and polished. The lines are both elegant and expressive at the same time. The structure takes the typical pyramid shape that the Egyptians used to depict mankind's journey toward God. But here there's a second, inverted pyramid -- God is reaching down toward us! And where the pyramids intersect, we find the interlocking embraces of Psyche and Cupid, almost like a double wedding ring. All this combines with the subject to create a marvelous sense of self-abandon and romantic passion, and we find ourselves dreaming of being borne away on the wings of love. I think it’s one of the greatest sculptures on earth.
He calls her, “My darling, my dove. How beautiful you are, my love.” But is this Cupid speaking to Psyche? No, these are the words of God calling to us in the Bible. Christ refers to us as His bride. And what word describes His sacrifice? It’s “passion.”
Have you never thought of God’s love in this way? Let me ask you this: Why do you think God gives us the experience of romantic love? Animals procreate just fine without it. I think God wanted to give us an idea of how passionately He loves us. This form of love that captures our attention, that makes our hearts ache, that drives us to climb any mountain, swim any sea – to pay any price – was put in our hearts by the One who yearns for us with a passion that is even stronger and with a tenderness that is even more sublime.
This sculpture illustrates a Greek myth, but it is relevant to our experience of God because, in the myth, Psyche succumbs to poison, and is revived by Cupid’s embrace. And at Christmas, with mankind's hopes nearly extinguished after centuries of waiting, waiting, waiting, God finally does come to claim His beloved, to embrace us in human arms, and in that embrace to revive us to eternal life. At last He comes, and our souls are borne away on the wings of love.
This is the fourth kind of love. It is Antoni Canova’s sculpture entitled Cupid and Psyche. It can be admired on many levels. The marble surfaces are pure and clean and expertly carved and polished. The lines are both elegant and expressive at the same time. The structure takes the typical pyramid shape that the Egyptians used to depict mankind's journey toward God. But here there's a second, inverted pyramid -- God is reaching down toward us! And where the pyramids intersect, we find the interlocking embraces of Psyche and Cupid, almost like a double wedding ring. All this combines with the subject to create a marvelous sense of self-abandon and romantic passion, and we find ourselves dreaming of being borne away on the wings of love. I think it’s one of the greatest sculptures on earth.
He calls her, “My darling, my dove. How beautiful you are, my love.” But is this Cupid speaking to Psyche? No, these are the words of God calling to us in the Bible. Christ refers to us as His bride. And what word describes His sacrifice? It’s “passion.”
Have you never thought of God’s love in this way? Let me ask you this: Why do you think God gives us the experience of romantic love? Animals procreate just fine without it. I think God wanted to give us an idea of how passionately He loves us. This form of love that captures our attention, that makes our hearts ache, that drives us to climb any mountain, swim any sea – to pay any price – was put in our hearts by the One who yearns for us with a passion that is even stronger and with a tenderness that is even more sublime.
This sculpture illustrates a Greek myth, but it is relevant to our experience of God because, in the myth, Psyche succumbs to poison, and is revived by Cupid’s embrace. And at Christmas, with mankind's hopes nearly extinguished after centuries of waiting, waiting, waiting, God finally does come to claim His beloved, to embrace us in human arms, and in that embrace to revive us to eternal life. At last He comes, and our souls are borne away on the wings of love.
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Want to know more about how God speaks to us through visual art?
Check out Art to Heart: Encounters with God in the world's great art