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Philosophical Parables and Myths

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Pinacotheca Philosophica

Philosophy and Philosophers in Art

Philosophical Parables and Myths

Cupid and Psyche

Grand Inquisitor, The

Plato’s Cave

Cupid and Psyche

Following its handling by the Platonic philosopher Lucius Apuleius in his famous novel The Golden Ass (2nd century A. D.), the story of Cupid and Psyche was often interpreted as an allegory of the Soul guided by Love towards her true destination in the spiritual world.

· Bloemaert. The Marriage of Cupid and Psyche (c. 1595, Windsor, The Royal Collection)

· Botticelli. La Primavera (Allegory of Spring) (1477-1478, Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi)

The painting is a Neoplatonic allegory depicting the Soul’s ascension from the material to the spiritual world. The central figure is Venus embodying celestial (Platonic) Love. On the right, the nymph Chloris is pursued by Zephyr (this allusion to an episode from Ovid’ Fasti, Book 5, 195-212, “May 3”, symbolises the Soul’s enslavement by worldly passions), but manages to escape and is transformed into Goddess Flora portrayed as La Primavera (the Spring; the escape symbolizes liberation of the Soul and her reunion with the Divine). On the left, the three Graces are blessed by Venus; they are, from right to left, Pulchritudo (Beauty), Chastitas (Chastity), and Voluptas (Pleasure). Voluptas’ eyes are fixed on Pulchritudo, for Beauty is the true source of Pleasure. Eros above is aiming his arrow at Chastitas who has turned her back to the mundane world (and to us, the spectators) and is looking at Mercury who, as Hermes Trismegistos, is the embodiment of Wisdom in the Neoplatonic Tradition. Mercury is holding the caduceus, his magic staff held to symbolise secret Knowledge.

o Chastitas

o Chloris

o Eros

o Flora (La Primavera)

o Mercury (Hermes Trismegistos)

o Pulchritudo

o Venus

o Voluptas

o Zephyr

· Gentileschi Orazio. Cupid and Psyche (1628-1630, St. Petersburg, The Hermitage)

· Gerard Fran?ois. Cupid and Psyche (1798, Paris, Mus?e du Louvre)

· Giordano. Psyche Honoured by the People (btw. 1692-1702, Windsor Castle, The Royal Collection)

· Giordano. Psyche Served by Invisible Spirits (btw. 1692-1702, Windsor Castle, The Royal Collection)

· Giordano. Psyche’s Parents Offering Sacrifice to Apollo (btw. 1692-1702, Windsor Castle, The Royal Collection)

· Giordano. Venus Punishing Psyche with a Task (btw. 1692-1702, Windsor Castle, The Royal Collection)

· Hale Edward Matthew. Psyche at the Throne of Venus (1883, private collection)

· Pajou. Psyche Abandoned (1790, Paris, Mus?e du Louvre)

o Psyche Abandoned (detail)

· Picot. Cupid and Psyche (1817, private collection)

· Proud’hon Pierre Paul. Psyche Carried Off by the Zephyrs (1808, Paris, Mus?e du Louvre)

The Grand Inquisitor

· Hecht-Nielsen. The Grand Inquisitor (private collection)

Plato’s Cave

The allegory depicts ordinary people as living locked in a cave, which represents the world of sense-experience; in the cave people see only unreal objects, shadows, or images. But through a painful process, which involves the rejection and overcoming of the familiar sensible world, they begin an ascent out of the cave into reality; this process is the analogue of the application of the dialectical method, which allows one to apprehend unchanging objects and thus acquire knowledge. In the allegory, this upward process, which not everyone is competent to engage in, culminates in the direct vision of the sun, which represents the source of knowledge (A. P. Martinich, Avrum Stroll. Epistemology, in Encyclopedia Britannica).

· Giorgione (completed by Sebastiano del Piombo). The Three Philosophers (c. 1510, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum)

o Plato’s Cave (identification purely conjectural)

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