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The Wedding Feast of Cupid and Psyche

1558
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 544
Enameling is a technique whereby a vitreous substance, often containing pigment, is fused with metal to produce a glossy surface. Limoges became a center for enameling as early as the twelfth century, when the art flourished in monastic workshops. In the late fifteenth century, this city in central France emerged as a center of secular as well as ecclesiastical enamelwork, and the school flourished throughout the sixteenth century. Among the most famous and prolific of the enamel painters practicing in sixteenth-century Limoges was Pierre Reymond (1513–after 1584), the author of this dish. Reymond's mastery of his medium is evident in the rich tonal range, the accurate modeling of his figures, and the sense of life and action. The restricted palette, in which white, black, and red are combined into rich, varied gray tones—hence the name grisaille painting—is enlivened by the decorative use of gold. The lip of the dish is remarkable for its rich vegetal decoration from which varied figures emerge. Reflecting Reymond's pride as an artist, the dish prominently displays his initials and the date 1558. Renaissance humanists interpreted the wedding of Cupid and Psyche, a subject drawn from The Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius (born ca. 124 A.D.), as the union of desire and soul.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Wedding Feast of Cupid and Psyche
  • Artist: Pierre Reymond (born 1513, working 1537, died after 1584)
  • Date: 1558
  • Culture: French, Limoges
  • Medium: Painted enamel on copper, partly gilt
  • Dimensions: 19 3/4 × 15 1/4 × 1 3/4 in. (50.2 × 38.7 × 4.4 cm)
  • Classification: Enamels
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Rogers Fund; Gifts of Irwin Untermyer, George Blumenthal, and Ogden Mills, by exchange; Bequest of Fannie F. Einstein, in memory of Emanuel Einstein, by exchange; and Edward Ablat, the Shubert Foundation, Inc., and Irving M. Gruber Gifts, 1984
  • Object Number: 1984.195
  • Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

More Artwork

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Saltcellar (one of a pair), Pierre Reymond French, Painted enamel on copper, partly gilt, French, Limoges
Saltcellar (one of a pair)
Pierre Reymond
ca. 1540–45
Adoration of the Infant Christ (one of a pair), Pierre Reymond French, Painted enamel on copper, partly gilt, French, Limoges
Adoration of the Infant Christ (one of a pair)
Pierre Reymond
Alfred André
probably third quarter 16th century
Pietà (one of a pair), Pierre Reymond French, Painted enamel on copper, partly gilt, French, Limoges
Pietà (one of a pair)
Pierre Reymond
Alfred André
probably third quarter 16th century
Scenes from the Life of Joseph, Pierre Reymond French, Painted enamel on copper, partly gilt; gilded metal finial of later date, French, Limoges
Scenes from the Life of Joseph
Pierre Reymond
Bernard Salomon
mid-16th century
The Toilet of Psyche, Pierre Reymond French, Painted enamel on copper, partly gilt, French, Limoges
The Toilet of Psyche
Pierre Reymond
1570

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