Psyche Gathering the Fleece of the Rams of the Sun

You might not find this painting shocking. But the image of love-smitten Psyche as a dewy-eyed beauty whose clothes all but fall away would have titillated the artist’s Parisian and Roman patrons. The love goddess Venus has forced Psyche to gather the fleece of the fierce, red-eyed rams of the sun—a nearly impossible task—but Psyche outwits the goddess by picking wool from the brambles. While Rococo artists reveled in such openly sensual works, the rising generation of Neoclassical artists would soon dismiss them as frivolous and even immoral.

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