Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss

Cupid alights to gather the lifeless Psyche in his arms, and at the moment of the reviving kiss their bodies cross in a tender, weightless X - her head fallen back, her arms curving up around his head, his great wings still raised. Antonio Canova carves the marble to an impossibly smooth, soft finish, all grace and gentle eroticism. Now in the Louvre, it is the most beloved of his works and a touchstone of Neoclassical sculpture, mythic love frozen at its tenderest instant, cold stone made to look like yielding flesh.