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Hugh Douglas Hamilton , Irish, 1740-1808

Title

Cupid and Psyche in the Nuptial Bower

Date1792-1793

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions

198 x 151 cm

Signedlower left: H. Hamilton Dubl.[space]s

Credit LinePresented, Friends of the National Collections of Ireland, 1956

Object numberNGI.1342

DescriptionMany eighteenth-century artists, inspired by the antique sculptures in the Capitoline Museum in Rome and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, were attracted to the theme of Cupid and Psyche. Hamilton’s painting was also clearly influenced by the work of his friend, Antonio Canova, who had been working on a sculpture of the same subject during the Irish artist’s final years in Rome. Hamilton included a plaster model of that work in his pastel portrait of Canova with Henry Tresham, and following his return to Dublin wrote to the sculptor to inform him that he had finished his painting of Cupid and Psyche.
The classical tale of Cupid and Psyche, replete with themes of love, jealousy, disobedience, exile and redemption came to be read as an allegory for voyages of the soul on earth and union with the divine after death. The early episode chosen by Hamilton is set in woodland, where the figures’ pale bodies contrast dramatically with the dark surroundings. The painting is replete with iconographical detail. Psyche’s wings are those of a butterfly, a symbol of the soul and of Psyche specifically in Greek art. Nearby, a butterfly rests on a rose, itself an attribute of Cupid, as are the bow and quiver on the ground. Ivy growing in the background, meanwhile, represents immortality. The painting was exhibited to great acclaim at the inaugural exhibition of the Society of Artists of Ireland in 1800.

March 2016
ProvenanceCollection of the 1st Earl of Charleville from early in the 19th century; Allen and Townsend, 19 September 1956, 'Charleville Forest, County Offaly' sale, lot 115; presented, Friends of the National Collections of Ireland, 1956 Exhibition HistorySociety of Artists, Dublin, 1800

Aspects of Irish Art, a Loan Exhibition; Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Columbus, Ohio, 27 January - 3 March 1974; Toledo Museum of Arts, Toledo, Ohio, 17 March - 14 April 1974; St Louis Art Museum, St Louis, Missouri, 3 May - 9 June 1974

Naked Truth: The Nude in Irish Art, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, 13 July - 28 October 2018
Label TextThis painting was influenced by antique sculptures in the Capitoline Museum in Rome and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, but also by a sculpture of the same subject by Hamilton’s friend Antonio Canova. The classical tale of Cupid and Psyche came to be read as an allegory for voyages of the soul on earth and union with the divine after death. Psyche’s butterfly wings are a symbol of the soul and of Psyche specifically in Greek art, while the rose, bow and quiver are attributes of Cupid. The ivy growing in the background, meanwhile, represents immortality.