Cupid and Psyche

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 loveliness, she spilled the burning oil, waking him. Only after she succeeded in three seemingly impossible quests could they finally marry.