Postament med Amor og Psyke samt en anden skulptur i en have 1793

Curator: This print by Georg Christian Schule, dating back to 1793, is titled "Postament med Amor og Psyke samt en anden skulptur i en have" which translates to "Base with Cupid and Psyche and another sculpture in a garden". It is currently housed here at the SMK. Editor: My initial feeling is one of serenity mixed with a certain coolness. The precision of the lines and the almost staged quality of the garden scene evokes a very specific emotional register. What draws you in? Curator: The layering of classical ideals within a garden setting definitely offers an opportunity to unpack notions of desire, class, and power that circulate through neoclassical imagery of that period. Editor: Absolutely. Take Cupid and Psyche – their intertwined embrace has been a symbol of enduring love and the soul’s journey throughout many eras and cultures. The embracing figures, the urn or medallion at the base... they become signifiers in a symbolic language we continue to recognize today. What do you make of the solitary female figure? Curator: I think you hit upon the key by mentioning her being solitary, as the other two figures embrace! I see her potentially standing as a critical gaze – one that is very consciously witnessing, if not judging, the themes of the entire composition. I am deeply curious to learn more about who that other statue is meant to be, and what commentary Schule might have intended! Editor: Yes! Is she observing or perhaps excluded from their embrace? There is something quite interesting, visually, about her stance in relation to that couple. She's certainly poised! But maybe we could think about gardens as cultivated spaces too – they aren't 'natural' landscapes so the statuary adds another layer of curated symbolism in what the garden is supposed to signify. Curator: Precisely – in that respect, the setting amplifies the reading of the garden as a highly artificial realm. It's like Schule has constructed a mini-theatre for social discourse to occur, even between sculptures. Thinking of those social dimensions, I can not help but think what the circulation and reception of a print like this may have been in 1793. Editor: It is really interesting that prints such as this facilitated conversations beyond the immediate place. For me, tracing the persistence of these motifs across time, noting the shifting values they accrue, underscores how we’re all enmeshed within cultural memory whether we’re conscious of it or not.