Amor and Psyche 1902

Károly Lotz made this painting of Amor and Psyche, probably in the late 1800s, with oils, and look at the dreamy washiness of the paint! I’m thinking about the quiet, patient labour of oil painting—the layering and the waiting, like a conversation that evolves over time. There’s the blush on Psyche’s skin, the way the light catches her form. Lotz is really working through this idea of beauty, of the ideal form. I imagine him stepping back, squinting, then leaning in to refine a curve or soften a shadow. That tube that Amor is holding seems like a kind of a metaphor for the artist's own process, doesn't it? Amor is pouring something—essence, love, light—onto Psyche. Maybe Lotz is reflecting on his own work. As artists, we borrow, steal, and transform. What's the alchemical reaction when ideas from different eras meet? We pass stuff on, through each other, and forward in time.