From a psychological point of view, if you want to understand someone you’d better know about their mother and their relationship to their mother. Here are some images of the Birth of Venus: The Birth of Venus Sandro Botticelli 1486 Tempera on canvas 67.9 in × 109.6 in Uffizi, Florence El nacimiento de Venus Alexandre…
The Birth of Venus (Cupid’s Mom) L’Amour au Papillon Le Captif (The Prisoner) Amour a l’affut (“Love on the Look-out”) L’Amour s’envole (“Love Takes Flight”) Oil on canvas, 1901 66 7/8 x 44 inches Frye Art Museum, Seattle
Myths are first and foremost psychic manifestations that represent the nature of the psyche. Carl Jung, in Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious (To read the myth of Eros and Psyche click here; to read Jean Shinoda Bolen’s interpretation of it, click here) Psyche Showing Her Sisters Her Gifts from Cupid Jean-Honore Fragonard 1753 Oil on…
(To read the myth click here; to read Jean Shinoda Bolen’s interpretation of it, click here) Psyche at her toilette Charles-Joseph Natoire 1735 71 x 76 cm Psyche Obtaining the elixir of beauty Charles-Joseph Natoire 1735 Cupid Sharpening an Arrow Charles Joseph Natoire 1750
Psyche and Cupid Simon Vouet (1627) 1566 Translation of from Apuleius. (Lots of formal and old English, but nevertheless the original English translation — Alas, poore Psyche) From Mr. Marassa’s Greek Mythology Course (More fun than the Wikipedia article below) This is the Wikipedia version of the myth: Envious and…
Psyche Crossing the River Styx There are many versions and many interpretations of the Eros and Psyche myth. This one, from a talk by Jean Shinoda Bolen in 2004, is one of the better ones. (She starts talking about the myth about 1/3 of the way through the article): Transitions as Liminal and Archetypal Situations…
Cupid and Psyche Orazio Gentileschi 1628-30 Oil on canvas, 137 x 160 cm The Hermitage, St. Petersburg Cupid and Psyche Sir Anthony van Dyck 1639-40 Oil on canvas, 199.4 x 191.8 cm Royal Collection, Windsor Sleeping Psyche Michelangelo Palloni ca. 1688 Fresco Wilanów Palace Museum, Warsaw Psyche Served by Invisible Spirits Luca Giordano 1692-1702 Oil…
Mercury Brings Psyche up to Olympus Sanzio Raffaello 1517-18 Fresco Villa Farnesina, Rome Psyche Brings a Vessel up to Venus Sanzio Raffaello 1517-18 Fresco Villa Farnesina, Rome Venus and Psyche 1517-18 Fresco Villa Farnesina, Rome Wedding Banquet of Cupid and Psyche Sanzio Raffaello 1517-18 Fresco Villa Farnesina, Rome Cupid and Psyche Romano Giulio 1526-28 Fresco…
After an unexpected heart operation and near death experience at the age of 52, I had an overwhelming impulse to build a stone cave. After the two more heart interventions — the placement of stents — and another near death experience, I felt an overwhelming need to build a stone labyrinth. Since my recovery from…