The moment the painting illustrates is in Morris's words "And kneeling down he whispered in her ear, "Rise, Psyche, and be mine for ever more For Evil is long tarrying on this shore". Then when she heard him, straight way she arose, And from her fell the burden of her woes." (Cupid and Psyche narrative, The Earthly Paradise) Burne-Jones chose a passage in which he was able to allegorise the position he found himself in. at a time when he was embarking upon a passionate affair. Maria Zambaco had recently escaped an unhappy marriage and he saw himself as her liberator and rescuer similar to Cupid in the story. Maria's likeness is given to Psyche who is being delivered from her fate, after the cruelly inflicted trials of Venus. The Athenaeum 30 Nov 1867 "Several of the most eminent members contribute memoranda which, although having considerable artistic value, are below exhibition quality. Among them are Messers. E. B. Jones - whose items, contrary to his wont, call for no special mention" With an assistant, Fairfax Murray, who joined the Studio in 1866, Burne-Jones was able to produce a larger body of work. Murray, a very competent artist was able to absorb and execute Burne-Jones's mannerisms and techniques which satisfied Burne-Jones the artist, enough for him to produce second versions. These were made by Murray copying drawings which the Master then over-worked to Murray's chagrin, leaving little evidence of all the work of under-painting. In the present watercolour there are some traces of Murray's preparatory work in the outline of Cupid's face and of the strong lines on the edges of the drapery.
These compositions, which became the first and last images of the Palace Green murals, epitomize Burne- Jones s blend of the classical and the romantic — "mythology in the midst of medievalism," as the Art Journal put it 1 — which in the Cupid and Psyche series perfectly matches Morris's stat- ed intention in the whole of The Earthly Paradise to honor the "continued thread of living Greek tradition coming down almost to the end of the Middle Ages among Greek-speaking people, and overlapping the full development of romanticism in Western Europe." 2 The more sculpturally classical drapery of the figures in the opening image accords with the sterner mood of the story's beginning. Jealous of Psyche s beauty, the goddess Venus sends Cupid to destroy her: instead, he falls in love with the sleeping princess: As Love cast down his eyes with a half smile, Godlike and cruel, that faded in a while, And long he stood above her hidden eyes With red lips parted in a god s surprise. After performing a series of harrowing tasks, Psyche is finally reunited with Cupid and, forgiven by Venus, is allowed to remain with him as an immortal. The moment illustrated in Cupid Delivering Psyche is treated by Burne -Jones more in the manner of the romantic Pre-Raphaelitism of earlier water- colors (such as Cupid's Forge, 1861; private collection), with softer, rounded forms and suffused color. A similar watercolor of Cupid Finding Psyche, rather darker in color and dated 1866, is in the British Museum, 3 while a group of six figure- and- drapery studies for the composition is in the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 4 The prime version of Cupid Delivering Psyche (London Borough of Hammersmith Public Libraries) was exhibited at the Old Water-Colour Society in 1867; another, unfinished, is in the Sheffield City Art Galleries. 1. Art Journal, June 1866, p. 174. 2. Mackail 1899, vol. 1, pp. 178-79. 3. British Museum collection 1994, no. 58. 4. Fogg Art Museum 1946, no. 6-11.