Psyche Abandoned

Polidoro da Caravaggio painted this Psyche Abandoned around 1524, depicting the moment in Apuleius's Golden Ass when Psyche, having violated her promise not to look at her divine lover, wakes to find him gone—the beginning of her long trials to win back Cupid's love. The Psyche and Amor myth was one of the richest mythological narratives available to Renaissance painters, its combination of human love, divine jealousy, and ultimate apotheosis through faithful endurance providing extensive pictorial material. Polidoro's intimate panel shows his ability to capture the psychological specificity of a narrative moment—the awakening to abandonment—with the classical figure construction and compositional clarity inherited from his training in Raphael's workshop. The myth's treatment by Raphael at the Villa Farnesina provided a prestigious precedent for Polidoro's version.

The scene captures the emotional desolation of the abandoned Psyche with the classicizing figure style Polidoro developed from his study of ancient Roman art. The composition reflects his mastery of expressive figure painting.