Psyche trying to restrain Cupid

This painting of Psyche trying to restrain Cupid, around 1645, by Jacob Jordaens, treats a popular mythological subject from Apuleius's Golden Ass. Jordaens was the leading painter in Antwerp after Rubens's death, continuing the Flemish tradition of robust, physical mythological painting. Jordaens, who outlived both Rubens and Van Dyck to become the dominant figure in Flemish Baroque painting for the second half of the seventeenth century, was particularly celebrated for his exuberant genre subjects, especially his series on the Flemish proverb about the King of the Bean.

The two figures are rendered with Jordaens's characteristic fleshly, robust modeling. The physical struggle between Psyche and the departing Cupid creates dynamic movement typical of Flemish Baroque narrative painting.