Panel 2. Zephyr Transporting Psyche to the Island of Delight

This canvas is the second in Denis's 1908 series of panels depicting the myth of Psyche, commissioned by the Russian collector Ivan Morozov for his Moscow mansion and now in the Hermitage Museum. The Zephyr bearing Psyche to the island of delight belongs to the narrative's enchanted early phase, before Psyche's fatal curiosity destroys her paradise. Denis was at the height of his monumental decorative powers when he undertook this commission, and the Psyche panels represent his most ambitious large-scale secular work. The story of Psyche — a mortal girl loved by the god Eros who must undergo terrible trials before achieving immortality — held obvious religious allegory for Denis, whose Catholic faith saw in the myth a parable of the soul's spiritual journey. The Zephyr panel is the most lyrical of the sequence, depicting the gentle supernatural transport of Psyche through a luminous sky landscape.

Denis treats the supernatural transport with formal lightness: figures are elongated and graceful, the sky a field of warm luminous colour. The composition likely emphasises horizontal movement across the picture surface, with Psyche's draped form and the Zephyr's wings creating flowing diagonal accents. Paint is applied smoothly, with careful colour gradation in the sky passages.