Cupid and Psyche
n.d.
Medium
Mezzotint in black on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Image/plate: 41.6 × 31.5 cm (16 7/16 × 12 7/16 in.); Sheet: 42.7 × 32.7 cm (16 13/16 × 12 7/8 in.)
Classification
mezzotint
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
210519
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
James McArdell was a talented Dublin School mezzotint engraver who also published his own prints. Here he capitalized on the Leiden painter Godfried Schalken’s fleeting fame. Schalken produced numerous nighttime scenes, and for this mythological mezzotint, the choice of illumination is particularly apt. Cupid fell in love with the mortal Psyche. Unable to keep her promise to meet with him solely in the dark, she lit an oil lamp, thereby learning her secret lover was divine. Overcome with his lov...
About the Artist
James McArdell · 1729–1765
**James MacArdell** (c. 1729 – 2 June 1765) was an Irish mezzotint engraver renowned for his masterful portraits of prominent figures in 18th-century Britain and Ireland. Born in Cow Lane (later Greek Street) in Dublin’s St Michan’s Parish, he trained under the engraver John Brooks. When Brooks relocated to London in 1746, MacArdell followed along with fellow pupils including Charles Spooner, esta...