Psyche leaving the underworld with Proserpine’s box.
Porcelain painter: Marie-Victoire Jaquotot (1772-1855).
The goddess of love Venus was extremely jealous of Psyche, a human girl, who was worshiped for her beauty in her homeland. To add insult to injury, Venus’ son Cupid falls in love and marries Psyche. Venus then traps Cupid in her chambers, to prevent him from seeing Psyche. When Psyche begs her to release Cupid, Venus presents her with 4 seemingly impossible tasks.
Psyche passes the first 3, but the final 4th task does her in – it was to travel to the Underworld, a place from where few ever return, to collect a beauty potion from Persephone, Queen of the Underworld and wife of Hades. While she succeeds in getting the potion, she decided to use a little on herself. However, as Psyche opens the box, she finds that inside is not a beauty potion, but a curse of eternal sleep!