Cupids Paintings II

Girl Defending From Cupid (William Bouguereau)

Star-crossed lovers intrigue us with the mystery of love and romance. Romeo and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde, Launcelot and Guenevere and many others convey stories of the human psyche filled with boundless affection and exhilerating emotion. Something in our own hearts wants to love freely, passionately, with total self-sacrifice.




Psyche and Cupid (Francois Gerard 1770 -1837)

Love and romance fires the imagination and stirs the hearts..and has always been a treasured theme of artists... whether visual artists, composers of music, or writers of literature.

The limitless depth of love as expressed in Romeo's relationship with Juliet is something that everyone seeks, even if unconsciously.

This searing fire of desire and devotion that heats the soul with both joy and pain is expressed over and over in many the great works of art.

Cupid And Psyche, 1891

What does Cupid have to do with love and romance?

According to ancient Roman mythology Venus, the goddess of love, gave birth to the child Cupid, whose main attribute was the fomenting of passionate relationships between men and women. Cupid's name comes from Cupido ("desire"), but he was also called Amor ("love") and by the Greeks Eros.

Cupid achieved his amorous matchmaking by means of a weapon of war and conquest - namely, a bow and arrows. These were apt symbols of the wounds of emotion, for as all romantics learn, "love hurts." Cupid was thought to be willful and capricious, flying on his baby wings hither and thither and delighting when people minding their own business were made to fall in love with one another.

Cupid was supposed to have a deep and tangled relationship with the beautiful woman named Psyche, who represents the human soul or mind.