Giovanni Maria Benzoni’s enduring image of Amore e Psiche, first completed in 1845, remains his most celebrated work – intensely imbued with the neoclassic flourishes of his predecessors, most notably Antonio Canova. However, Benzoni renders it with his own stylistic mélange of virtuosic detail, meticulous technical prowess and subtlety in its movement pregnant with anticipation and rich emotion. The installation of such an imposing and impactful work at Tapeley Park was in no way unintentional given Lady Rosamond grand scheme for ‘neo-classicising’ the Park, including the renovation of the façade with an Italianate loggia fit for Benzoni’s magnum opus.

The depiction Cupid & Psyche is rife through 18th and 19th century sculpture, jumping directly from the pages in Metomorphoses. In a departure from the often rendered awakening of Psyche by Cupid’s, as in Antonio Canova’s iconic Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss (1787) and more closely relates in composition to a Hellenistic group dating to the 1st or 2nd century B.C, now in the Capitoline Museum, Rome. Benzoni chose the moment following her revival, depicting Cupid’s impending departure as he is momentarily detained by Psyche. This moment of tension and tenderness is rarely represented, capturing the figures lingering in a delicate and subtle struggle between his arrival and departure, masterfully conveyed through Benzoni’s prowess in marble carving. However, Benzoni’s Amor e Psiche is inextricably and explicitly in dialogue with Canova’s works in subject matter, in compositional arrangement, in the idealization of form. Benzoni’s choice to depict a less common moment of the myth (after awakening, but before departure) can be seen as seeking to differentiate his work from Canova’s famous moment of reviving kiss. Thus Benzoni both pays homage and seeks individual expression.

Giovanni Maria Benzoni (1809-1873) was a pupil of Giuseppe Fabris at the Academy of Saint Luc in Rome. Equally renowned for his classical subjects and religious work, Benzoni was a favored sculptor of Pope Pius IX, and received commissions from many English and Russian aristocratic families. He also executed architectural sculptures for the Imperial Theatre, St. Petersburg, exhibited at the Great Exhibitions and represented the Vatican at the Antwerp International Exhibition. Benzoni was profoundly influenced by Canova, as previously explored, and this is most purely expressed in the masterful animation of his large figural groups including Flora and Zephyr, a technically similar group exhibited to critical acclaim at the International Exhibition in London in 1862.

The first example of Amor e Psiche was completed by the artist in 1845 and now resides in the Galleria d'arte moderna, Milan, followed by the exhibition of another at the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition in London. Lauded for its meticulous technical achievement, Benzoni’s group was ultimately produced at least eight times by special commission, of which the following are now publicly held in major institutions or have been offered for public sale:
· Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Milan, Italy (1845).
· The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia (circa 1850-60), acquired for Tsar Nicolas I.
· Lyndhurst Mansion (former Jay Gould residence), New York, now part of The National Historic Register (1852).
· Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris, France.
· Crescent Gardens, Harrogate, Yorkshire, England (1862).
· An undated example acquired for Milton S. Latham (d. 1882) for ‘Thurlow Lodge’, Menlo Park, California and subsequently acquired by Mrs. Mary Hopkins (d. 1891), ultimately sold Sherwood Hall, the Estate of the late Mary E. [sic] Hopkins (Mrs. Timothy Hopkins); 3-5 October 1942, lot 439.