Cesare Lapini (Italian, 1848-after 1902)
PSYCHE AND THE BUTTERFLY
Carrara marble, inscribed Gall.Lapini, Firenze, 1895
height 57.25" — 145.4 cm.
December 06, 2017
Estimate $20,000-$30,000
Realised: $108,000
Price Realised: $108,000
Gifted to the Art Gallery of Ontario by Mrs. J. Morrow, this work was deaccessioned by the Gallery to benefit art purchases at the AGO.
This version of Psyche shows her in a jubilant state, celebrating her new immortality and reunion with her husband, Cupid. She has accomplished momentous tasks assigned to her by Venus in order to achieve her union of love, and seems to be joyfully sending a butterfly, which symbolizes innocence as well as transformation, into flight. Everything about her is ascending up into the air, her hair, her arms, even the vines of roses encircling her body reach upward. Psyche now has her own butterfly wings as she has joined Cupid as an immortal.
Cesare Lapini made many sculptures of Psyche at various points in her journey – this one in particular shows her in her final state; self-assured and confident in her new place amongst the Gods.
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