This painting is the ninth in a set of twelve in the Royal Collection depicting part of the story of Cupid and Psyche. The subject of this series comes from The Metamorphoses or Golden Ass by the second-century AD writer Apuleius: it is one of the stories that intersperse the main narrative of Lucius on his travels (Book IV, para. 28 - Book VI, para. 24). The tale of the many travails endured by ill-matched lovers (one mortal and one divine) before their final happy marriage, it was interpreted in the Renaissance as a Neoplatonic allegory of the progress of the soul (Psyche means 'soul' in Greek) towards salvation through Divine Love. The outcome of their union is Pleasure.

At this stage in the story, Psyche has eventually fallen to the ground in exhaustion and Cupid alights in a nearby tree, from where he upbraids and then leaves her. In despair Psyche throws herself into the river, which 'in respect it would seem for the god' refuses to let her drown. Instead it lands her on a grassy bank where Pan is sitting; he advises Psyche not to despair and to try to regain Cupid's favour. This painting shows Cupid castigating the kneeling Psyche from a tree. In the middle distance she throws herself into the river and on the left she stands, arranging her hair, before Pan, the goat-god surrounded by his sheep.

Inscribed in pencil on back of copper: J Meijers

Catalogue entry adapted from The Art of Italy in the Royal Collection: Renaissance and Baroque, London, 2007