Cupid Supplicating Jupiter, Peter Paul Rubens and Studio

The subject is taken from Apuleius's Metamorphoses, which, like Ovid's famous work of the same title, tells of the loves of the gods. The painting might more accurately be called "Cupid Supplicating Jupiter's Consent to His Marriage to Psyche," an episode in the story of Cupid and Psyche (Apuleius 6:22) in which the god of love, who has fallen in love himself with the mortal Psyche, entreats the king of the gods to allow him to marry and bring his bride to Olympus. Jupiter, ruler of men and gods, sits magisterially on a cloudbank on which Cupid kneels. Despite his imploring expression, Cupid boldly takes hold of the thunderbolt, a symbol of Jupiter's power, which has been subtly shaped to recall Cupid's bow, the attribute of his power to which even the gods, and Jupiter himself, are subject. Jupiter's tentative gesture toward the thunder bolt and his brooding expression may, in fact, be reactions not only to Cupid's extraordinary plea to marry a mortal, and for her deification, but also to the hold that Cupid has over him. In a closely related painting of Ganymede (collection of Prince Schwarzenberg, Vienna), Jupiter's vulnerability and subservience to the power of love are abundantly apparent. Ganymede depicts the beautiful mortal youth who was beloved of Jupiter and borne to Olympus by an eagle, another attribute of Jupiter, to serve as cupbearer to the gods. The two paintings were almost certainly the same size originally and square in format: the Forbes picture has been cut down at both the sides and at the top, as can be seen from the somewhat flattened top of Jupiter's head. A large and magnificent eagle with outspread wings dominates each composition, and a comparison of the birds has led scholars to date the two paintings closely in time. There is general agreement on the basis of style that they were painted between 1611 and 1615, although one Rubens expert, Michael Jaffe, has proposed a later date. The composition of the Forbes picture clearly reflects Rubens's knowledge of the decorations illustrating the tale of Cupid and Psyche in the Villa Farnesina in Rome, designed by his great High Renaissance predecessor, Raphael. Indeed, Cupid Supplicating Jupiter conflates two of those scenes: Jupiter Kissing Cupid and Venus Appealing to Jupiter. In Raphael's scenes, the eagle is subsidiary to the figures. The prominence and heraldic quality of Rubens's eagles might eventually provide a clue to the patron of both Cupid Supplicating Jupiter and the Schwarzenberg Ganymede.