The Story of Psyche: panel 6. Psyche's Kin Bid Her Farewell on a Mountain Top 1908

Maurice Denis painted this panel, number six in 'The Story of Psyche,' sometime around 1903 with oil on canvas, and what gets me is its feeling for process, with soft, gentle marks that give the whole thing a dreamlike quality. Look how Denis uses the texture of the paint to create a landscape that feels both real and imagined. The surface is built up with layers of color, almost pointillist, like Seurat, but softer. It gives a shimmer, a vibration that I think really gets to the heart of the scene: Psyche saying goodbye, on the verge of transformation. The way the light catches on the folds of Psyche's dress, and the subtle shifts in tone across the mountains are really something. And there’s something about how the figures are arranged, so close together, yet so distant in their own thoughts, which reminds me of Puvis de Chavannes. He was also interested in a kind of timelessness and mythic storytelling. Ultimately, this panel feels like an invitation to see art as this ongoing conversation. There are no answers, only more questions.