Curious Psyche

Giovanni David

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The mortal princess Psyche was so beautiful that she was worshipped in place of Venus. Cupid, sent by his angry mother to make Psyche fall in love with the vilest man on earth, fell in love with her himself and installed her in his enchanted palace. David depicts the moment when Psyche's lamp reveals that her mysterious lover is Eros. Presently, the god of love will be awakened by a drop of oil and flee. David may have been the first Italian to take up the new medium of aquatint, which allowed him to imitate the subtle tonal effects of a wash drawing.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art