Title: Landscape with Psyche Outside the Palace of Cupid
Description: Landscape with Psyche Outside the Palace of Cupid, or The Enchanted Castle, 1664, is a painting, oil on canvas, by Claude Lorrain in the National Gallery, London. It was commissioned by Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna, a Roman aristocrat. Its subject is taken from The Golden Ass (IV-VI), by Apuleius – the love story of Psyche the soul, and Cupid the god of love. It is not clear if Psyche sits in front of Cupid's castle before she meets him, or after he has abandoned her. It is sometimes thought – it is disputed – to have inspired the lines – Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam/Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn , – in John Keats's Ode to a Nightingale. Keats was fascinated by the picture.
Author(s): Claude Lorrain