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Not gonna lie – I still get a special thrill every time I run into Cupid out and about in the world. Doesn’t matter if he’s painted or sculpted or hand-drawn or digital. Spotting Cupid always bring a quiver. (See what I did there?)
Why the obsession with Cupid?
I’ve always been fascinated by all the Greek/Roman gods. [Side note: I acknowledge my Greco-Roman fluidity with the gods. As part of the world building in the Cupid’s Fall series, I’ve imagined a Great Syncretism where the systems are fully merged.]
In fact, I was in my own mythological heaven last year when we visited the Acropolis in Athens. Though the original statuary has tragically been pillaged and abducted from the Parthenon edifice, I got to hang out with these wonderful reproductions inside the Acropolis Museum:
But I digress…
Of all the love stories Eros / Cupid inspired (and a few more that he personally denied), he must have suffered terribly with all his own longing. Time is a blur for immortals, but it’s fair to assume Cupid was a tortured bachelor for centuries if not millenia before Psyche came on the scene. Poor fella!
So I wanted to give him a chance to step up and do the right thing. He deserved a chance to be more than the little itch of Olympus. It was about time to demand he lived up to his role as God of Erotic Desire. Hence, I turned him into my romantic hero.
I am a sucker for love.
Truth be told, anything LOVE- (or naughtiness-) related will always draw my attention. Love is my love language! Words turn me on!
Follow me on Instagram and you’ll find a slew of heart-shaped messages painted on rocks, shop signs that hint at romance, and photos of beautiful men that I’ve picked out to star in the Cupid’s Fall movies. I love love.
And here are a few of my recent finds:
Oops – I digressed again.
I somehow STILL wasn’t prepared for spotting Cupid in the Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window
It’s silliness, really. Why did Cupid take me by surprise?
My husband and I (along with two other adventurous, art-loving couples) flew to Amsterdam, walked into the Rijksmuseum, and headed straight for the special Vermeer exhibit we’d been planning to see for months.
(Of course, after spotting Cupid in the museum lobby, we couldn’t resist stopping for a quick selfie!)
Mind you, I was fully aware of the strange and wonderful story behind the Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window.
Just to make sure we’re all on the same page here…
Did you know this strange and wonderful story of the hidden Cupid?
The painting everyone “knew” for 300 years
From 1658(-ish) until about 40 years ago, everyone assumed Vermeer had simply painted a plain, albeit gorgeous and subtly shaded, gold wall behind the girl in question (Exhibit A below).
I would have to admit (art expert I am absolutely not), that it’s a pretty fantastic painting even without Cupid. The light coming in from the outside world, her reflection in the glass, the rich tapestries and patterns, the lush fruit bowl. The incredibly detailed curls in her hair and shadows on her hands make the subject feel as if we could touch her. The flush in her cheeks tells us she’s most likely reading a love letter.
The painting as we now know Vermeer painted it
Fast forward to the X-ray that revealed the presence of a painting of Cupid behind the wall (Exhibit B).
At the time, the folks doing the restoration concluded that the artist himself had changed his mind and painted over poor Cupid. WELL – thank the gods! – a different restoration team in 2017 realized that this rectangular section of the painting was responding differently to the chemicals. After carefully anazlyzing the brush strokes revealed, they deduced that someone ELSE had painted over our pudgy li’l archer.
Who would commit such an egregious crime? A topic for another post!
What we do know is that Cupid is stomping on a mask and sending a very strong message to the girl about how he feels she should approach this whole romantic situation (i.e. – without masking her true feelings).
I haven’t done this intriguing story justice. Please go and read this wonderful account for all the juicy details!
I was Vermeerklempt
And THIS is the first painting we encountered at the museum. I was verklempt. Or should I say, Vermeerklempt?
I finally did get a grip on my racing heart and enjoyed the rest of the paintings very much. The Girl With the Pearl Earring was no longer part of the collection, sadly, but there was a Girl With a Pearl Necklace and two more Cupid appearances!
Not surprisingly, Paris was also brimming with images of Cupid and LOVE in general!
The next leg of our trip brought us to Paris, where we visited the French Open (minus Rafa, boo-hoo!). When we weren’t enjoying the tennis, we were walking and walking and walking the city.
We did it all: Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Le Marais, Montmartre. We paused for a croissant and a Croque Monsieur but for once actually worked off the calories we ate!
You all know the obvious sights, and heck yeah, I photographed those. How could I not?
But when you’re on the lookout for romance in Pari, it isn’t hard to find!
Shout out to my very romantic hubby for spotting Cupid not once but twice, well before I saw either one. (Maybe if Zach from Into the Quiet were as aware of his wife Ruthie’s passions as my hubby, their marriage wouldn’t have gotten to the crisis point!)
That last image is the “Wall of Love” in Montmartre, which deserves its own blog post. The French name – “Le mur des je t’aime” – literally means “The I Love You Wall.” The wall, created in 2000 by artists Fédéric Baron and Claire Kito, is 612 tiles of enamelled lava, on which the phrase ‘I love you’ is featured 311 times in 250 languages.
I chose to photograph this section once I located the Hebrew – “Ani Ohevet Otach” (just above the caption).
So get out there and flutter, people!
What makes your heart beat faster? Is it an ice cream shop? A jewelry store? Fancy soaps or beautifully displayed produce?
Where do you find these treasures? Tell me all about it in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
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