Cupid playing with a butterfly

Cupid playing with a butterfly The bronze statuette of Cupid was made in Paris around 1824 by an unknown sculptor according to the design by Antoine Denis Chaudet (1763-1810). Antoine Denis Chaudet was a French sculptor and painter. He worked in the classicist style. He made sculptural groups, statues, and reliefs with subjects drawn from mythology and literature, as well as allegorical compositions. He was Napoleon's official portrait painter. Cupid playing with a butterfly is one of his best and most famous works. Cupid, the god of love, was depicted as a naked winged youth, down on his right knee. With the fingers of his right hand, he is holding the butterfly by the wings, directing it towards the rose branch he is holding in his left hand. The butterfly symbolises the soul ('psyche' in Greek). The myth of Cupid and Psyche was popular during the neoclassical period. Chaudet exhibited the plaster model of Cupid playing with a butterfly in 1802 at the Paris Salon. The marble version, completed after the artist's death by Pierre Cartellier, was exhibited at the Salon in 1817; since 1847, it has been housed in Louvre. In 1824, a bronze version was exhibited at the Salon (currently at the Palace of Versailles). It was cast by A. Soyer, a Parisian sculptor and casting artist, who died after 1844. Chaudet's depiction of Cupid playing with a butterfly was copied in different sizes and using various materials throughout the 19th c. The Łańcut sculpture differs from the marble original, in which Cupid does not have a loincloth, and the rectangular base is decorated with reliefs. Barbara Trojnar