Amor en Psyche 1883

Ferdinand Leenhoff created this print called "Amor en Psyche", but the exact date remains unknown. It represents a classic mythological scene. Such images were widely circulated in 19th-century Europe, reflecting both the growing interest in classical themes and the rise of reproductive printmaking. This was a time of increasing secularization, as institutions that had once been under the firm control of the church became more secular. In the visual arts, the naked body was reappearing as a subject of high art, as it had been in classical antiquity, but it was also entering the field of pornography. Artists had to navigate those tricky boundaries, and in this image, the artist is on the right side of that line. To understand this piece better, we might research the role of classical imagery in 19th-century French culture, the institutions that supported and exhibited such works, and the complex social attitudes toward nudity and sexuality at the time. These factors all contribute to the meaning we can find in the art of this period.