Saverio Costa (XX-XXI) - Amore e Psiche

Oil on panel by S. Costa, a refined interpretation of the famous neoclassical subject L'Amour et Psyché, enfants, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau. Two winged putti — Cupid with pure feathered wings, Psyche with delicate butterfly wings — tenderly embrace in a kiss on the face, wrapped in a blue night drapery, suspended on a soft bed of clouds against a pale blue sky. The composition, in nineteenth-century academic taste, highlights the artist's mastery in rendering the bodies of the infants, in the modulation of light on the skin, and in the contrasting texture of the two wing types — feather and lepidopteran — symbolic of the duality between earthly love and the soul. The cobalt blue drapery creates a happy chromatic counterpoint with the pastel tones of the sky and clouds, imparting depth and movement to the scene.