Cupid and Psyche
I wonder if, when bows and arrows were common weaponry, the figure of Cupid with his darts might have had a sense of danger about him that no longer relates, these thousands of cute Valentine’s Day cards later?I can certainly understand that the viewer might react to this as a depiction of an act of violence, the female figure seeming restrained, and with the presence of a gun. Being aware of this I made an effort to use smiles, and an indirect position of the gun. According to Ovid, Psyche was given Cupid as a lover, but on the condition that she should not know his identity. Therefore he is covering her eyes. Still, she is dressed to invite a lover. The gun is simply my substitute for Cupid’s arrows, being as, as I’ve mentioned, I was interested in the idea of Cupid being armed with weaponry, which we tend to overlook.
Being, at the time, in a long distance relationship, love didn’t always seem to me a friendly character. This is a depiction of love with a sense of danger.