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The Feast of the Gods at the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche, 1587
Hendrick Goltzius (Netherlandish, 15581617); After Bartholomeus Spranger (Netherlandish, 15461611)
Engraving, printed from three plates on three attached sheets; second state of four;
overall 16 7/8 x 33 5/8 in. (43 x 85.4 cm)
Purchase, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, Martha Feltenstein Gift, and A. Hyatt Mayor Purchase Fund, Marjorie Phelps Starr Bequest, 2000 (2000.113)
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Description
Comprising about seventy figures, this print was the largest and most famous of the Haarlem engraver's collaborations with Spranger, court painter to Emperor Rudolf II in Prague. Its bravura display of elegant, twisting and turning nudes placed among dense, serpentine billows of clouds was of great importance in disseminating throughout Europe Spranger's Mannerist aesthetic and Goltzius's virtuoso engraving style.
As is typical of Mannerist works, the main subjects of the scene are relegated to the background; the small figures of Cupid, with large, jutting wings, and his mortal bride, Psyche, who is being admitted to the ranks of the gods, can be found at the head of the table just right of center. Divine wedding guests surround the couple. Toward the left Bacchus pours drinks while Ceres, to the left of him with her horn of plenty, directs the arrival of the food. Apollo and the Muses, on the right, serenade the company. Spranger's preparatory drawing for the print is preserved in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
(Entry written by Nadine M. Orenstein)
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