"Omnia vincit amor" is an old Latin proverb from Virgil's 10th Eclogue (10, 69) and says that love can conquer everything. - From Roman mythology we know Cupid, son of the god Mars and the goddess Venus, as the god of love or falling in love. The connection to Psyche (Soul), the youngest and most beautiful of three royal daughters, goes back to the oldest romance novel in literature, handed down by Apuleius (2nd century AD).
Cupid is often depicted as a boy with very small wings. His special attributes are the quiver with the arrows and a burning torch. He shoots his (love) arrows in a mischievous manner and thus inflicts pain on those proverbially struck by love. In the visual arts of antiquity, Psyche is characterised by butterfly wings.
The picture, however, shows Cupid and Psyche in reversed roles, for Cupid is bound by his legs. (AVS)
Former August Kestner Collection, Rome
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