About the Artwork
Eros (or Cupid), the son of Venus, visited Psyche every night proclaiming his love but concealing his identity in the darkness. Eventually Psyche's curiosity overcame her, and when one night she held a lantern up to see him, Eros became very angry and left her. The story ends happily in the reunion and marriage of the lovers. The scene in this painting is very unusual; most depictions of this theme show either Eros visiting Psyche or Psyche shining her lantern upon Eros, so the exact subject here is in dispute.
Born in Modena and active in the early part of his career in Bologna, Niccolo dell' Abate moved to France in 1552. He and the other Italian artists working at the court of the French kings at Fontainebleau spread the mannerist style which was popular in the artistic centers of Italy.
Eros and Psyche
between 1512 and 1571
Niccolò dell' Abbate
1512-1571
Italian
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Oil on canvas
Unframed: 39 1/4 × 36 1/2 inches (99.7 × 92.7 cm) Framed: 50 1/4 × 48 7/8 × 2 1/2 inches (127.6 × 124.2 × 6.4 cm)
Paintings
European Painting
Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund
65.347
Public Domain
Markings
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Provenance
by 1920, until 1944, Paul J. Sachs (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA);1944 or 1954-1965, purchased by (Pinakos [R. Heinemann] and Knoedler & Co., New York, New York, USA);
1965-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
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Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Suggest FeedbackPublished References
Barocchi, Paola. "Precisazioni sul Primaticcio." Commentari II (1951): fasc. 3-4, p. 215, note 5.
Chefs-d'oeuvre de la Curiosité du Monde. Exh. cat., Musée des Arts Décoratifs. Paris, 1954, no. 1, pl. 8.
Sterling, Charles. "Ecole de Fontainbleau." Le triomphe du maniérisme européen: De Michel-Ange au Greco. Exh. cat., Rijksmuseum. Amsterdam, 1955, in cat. no. 101a
Béguin, S. L'Ecole de Fontainebleau, le manierisme à la cour de France. 1960, p. 54. [ca. 1560.]
Béguin, S. "Niccolò dell'Abbate en France." Art de France 2 (1962): pp. 113-145, p. 140, pl. 137.
McAllister Johnson, W. "Niccolò dell'Abbate's Eros and Psyche." Bulletin of the DIA 45, no. 2 (1966): pp. 27-34 (ill.).
McAllister, Johnson W. "Five drawings for the Palace of Fontainebleu." Master Drawings 4, no. 1, p. 25 ff.
Rondorf, Dorothee. Der Ballsaal im Schloss Fontainebleau. Zur Stilgeschichte Primaticcios in Frankreich, Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde der Philosophischen Fakultät Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn. Bonn 1967, p. 347, note 199.
The Italian Heritage. Exh. cat., Wildenstein & Co. New York, 1967, cat. 42 (ill.).
Pressouyre, S. "Art Classique." Chronique du Bulletin Monumental 4 (1967): pp. 431-432.
Chronique des Arts, no. 1190 (March 1968): p. 20
Visions and Revisions. Exh. cat., Rhode Island School of Design, Museum of Art. Providence, 1968, cat. 24 (ill.), cat. no. 1.
Nicolò dell' Abate [sic]. Exh. cat., Palazzo dell'Archiginnasio. Bologna, 1969, pp. 32, 123, no. 64.
Cummings, F. and C. Elam, eds. Detroit Institute of Arts Illustrated Handbook. Detroit, 1971, p. 94 (ill.).
L'Ecole de Fontainebleau. Exh. cat., Grand Palais. Paris, 1972, no. 2, (ill.) and p. XXIV. [as Venus et l'Amour.]
Fontainebleau, Art in France 1528-1610. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Canada. Ottawa, 1973, vol. 1, p. 152, pl. 133; vol. 2, p. 25, cat. 2 (ill.). [as Venus and Cupid by Niccolò dell'Abate.]
Fredericksen, B. and F. Zeri. Census of Pre-19th Century Italian Paintings in North American Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972, p. 148.
Cummings, F., ed. Selected Works from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1979, p. 140, cat. 113 (ill.).
Lévêque, Jean-Jacques. L'Ecole de Fontainebleau. Neufchâtel, 1984, pp. 222-223, col (ill.).
Béguin, S., J. Guillaume, and Alain Roy. La Galerie d'Ulysse à Fontainebleau. Paris, 1985, pp. 306-307.
Béguin, S. "I pittori bolognesi a Fontainebleau." Pittura bolognese del '500, I, ed. Vera Fortunati Pietrantonio. Bologna, 1986, p. 246.
Béguin, S. "Bologna e Fontainebleau: vicende di un dialogo." Nell'età di Correggio e dei Carracci. Pittura in Emilia dei Secoli XVI e XVII. Exh. cat., Pinacoteca Nazionale. Bologna, 1986, p. 186, under no. 69.
Zauber der Medusa: Europäische Manierismen. Exh. cat., Wiener Kunstlerhaus. Vienna, 1987, p. 183, cat. 8 (ill.).
Love Everlasting: The Art of Romance through the Millennia. Exh. cat., Flint Institute of Arts. Flint, 2000, pp. 32-33, cat. 11 (ill.). [ca. 1560.]
Primatice, Maître de Fontainebleau. Exh. cat., Musée du Louvre. Paris, 2004, pp. 295, 337, cat. no. 173 (color ill.) p. 339.
Béguin, S. "Primaticcio in France." Burlington Magazine 147, no. 1225 (April, 2005): pp. 240-244, p. 243. [ca. 1565-1570.]
Béguin, S. "Les deux vies de Nicolò dell'Abate." L'Objet d'Art, no. 402 (May 2005): pp. 32-43, pp. 32-33, 40.
Béguin S. and F. Piccinini. Nicolò dell'Abate. Exh. cat., Foro Boario. Modena, 2005, p. 22, (ill.) p. 19.
Fiorenza, G. "Penelope's Web: Francesco Primaticcio's Epic Revision at Fontainebleau." Renaissance Quarterly 59 (2006): pp. 790-827, pp. 805-806 (fig. 3).
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Niccolò dell' Abbate, Eros and Psyche, between 1512 and 1571, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund, 65.347.
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