Editing Cupid and Psyche (section)

====''The Wedding of Cupid and Psyche''====
[[File:Raffaello, banchetto nuziale 02.jpg|thumb|upright=1.8|''The Wedding Banquet of Cupid and Psyche'' (1517) by [[Raphael]] and his workshop, from the [[:it:Loggia di Psiche|Loggia di Psiche]], [[Villa Farnesina]]]]
[[File:Marriage of Cupid and Psyche.jpg|thumb|301x301px|Godefroy Engelmann after Raphael, ''Marriage of Cupid and Psyche'', 1825, lithograph]]

The assembly of the gods has been a popular subject for both visual and performing arts, with the wedding banquet of Cupid and Psyche a particularly rich occasion. With the wedding of [[Peleus]] and [[Thetis]], this is the most common setting for a "[[Feast of the Gods (art)|Feast of the Gods]]" scene in art. Apuleius describes the scene in terms of a festive Roman dinner party ''([[cena]])''. Cupid, now a husband, reclines in the place of honor (the [[triclinium|"top" couch]]) and embraces Psyche in his lap. Zeus and [[Hera]] situate themselves likewise, and all the other gods are arranged in order. The cupbearer of Jove (Zeus's other Roman name) serves him with nectar, the "wine of the gods"; Apuleius refers to the cupbearer only as ''ille rusticus puer'', "that country boy", and not as [[Ganymede (mythology)|Ganymede]]. [[Liber]], the Roman god of wine, serves the rest of the company. [[Volcanus|Vulcan]], the god of fire, cooks the food; the [[Horae]] ("Seasons" or "Hours") adorn, or more literally "empurple", everything with roses and other flowers; the [[Gratiae|Graces]] suffuse the setting with the scent of [[balsam]], and the [[Muses]] with melodic singing. Apollo sings to his [[cithara|lyre]], and Venus takes the starring role in dancing at the wedding, with the Muses as her chorus girls, a [[satyr]] blowing the [[aulos]] ''(tibia'' in Latin), and a young [[Pan (god)#All of the Pans|Pan]] expressing himself through the [[Pan flute|pan pipes]] ''(fistula)''.

The wedding provides [[poetic closure|closure]] for the narrative structure as well as for the love story: the mysteriously provided pleasures Psyche enjoyed in the ''[[domus]]'' of Cupid at the beginning of her odyssey, when she entered into a false marriage preceded by funeral rites, are reimagined in the hall of the gods following correct ritual procedure for a real marriage.<ref>Harrison, "Divine Authority in 'Cupid and Psyche'," p. 179.</ref> The arranging of the gods in their proper order ''(in ordinem)'' would evoke for the Roman audience the religious ceremony of the ''[[lectisternium]]'', a public banquet held for the major deities in the form of statues arranged on luxurious couches, as if they were present and participating in the meal.<ref name="autogenerated182">Harrison, "Divine Authority in 'Cupid and Psyche'," p. 182.</ref>

[[File:WLA brooklynmuseum Wedgewood-Marriage of Cupid and Psyche.jpg|thumb|left|''Marriage of Cupid and Psyche'' (c. 1773), [[jasperware]] by [[Wedgwood]] based on the 1st-century [[Marlborough gem]], which most likely was intended to depict an [[mystery religions|initiation rite]] ''([[Brooklyn Museum]])'']]

The wedding banquet was a favored theme for Renaissance art. As early as 1497, [[Giovanni Sabadino degli Arienti]] made the banquet central to his description of a now-lost Cupid and Psyche cycle at the [[Villa Belriguardo]], near [[Ferrara]]. At the [[Villa Farnesina]] in Rome, it is one of two main scenes for the Loggia di Psiche (ca. 1518) by [[Raphael]] and his workshop, as well as for the Stanza di Psiche (1545–46) by [[Perino del Vaga]] at the [[Castel Sant' Angelo]].<ref name="autogenerated182"/> [[Hendrick Goltzius]] introduced the subject to northern Europe with his "enormous" [[engraving]] called ''The Wedding of Cupid and Psyche'' (1587, 43 by 85.4&nbsp;cm),<ref>Ariane van Suchtelen and Anne T. Woollett, ''Rubens and Brueghel: A Working Friendship'' (Getty Publications, 2006), p. 60; Susan Maxwell, ''The Court Art of Friedrich Sustris: Patronage in Late Renaissance Bavaria'' (Ashgate, 2011), pp. 172, 174.</ref> which influenced how other northern artists depicted assemblies of the gods in general.<ref>Van Suchtelen and Woollett, ''Rubens and Brueghel,'' p. 60; Maxwell, ''The Court Art of Friedrich Sustris,'' p. 172.</ref> The engraving in turn had been taken from [[Bartholomaeus Spranger]]'s 1585 drawing of the same title, considered a "''[[locus classicus]]'' of [[Northern Mannerism|Dutch Mannerism]]" and discussed by [[Karel Van Mander]] for its exemplary composition involving numerous figures.<ref>Martha Hollander, ''An Entrance for the Eyes: Space and Meaning in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art'' (University of California Press, 2002), pp. 11–12.</ref>

In the 18th century, [[François Boucher]]'s ''Marriage of Cupid and Psyche'' (1744) affirmed [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] ideals with the authority figure Jupiter presiding over a marriage of lovely equals. The painting reflects the [[Rococo]] taste for pastels, fluid delicacy, and amorous scenarios infused with youth and beauty.<ref>[[Michelle Facos]], ''An Introduction to 19th Century Art'' (Routledge, 2011), p. 20.</ref>