The Abduction of Psyche was depicted by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, which was depended on Greek mythology. It was said that Psyche, the daughter of a king, was a beauty who worshiped as a goddess by citizens, which angered Venus, so that Venus decided to punish her that she has to married the world’s most humble person. However, small Cupid who famous as Venus’s son, fell in love with this pure and innocent girl, so he ignored his mother’s will and married with Psyche, which led to house confinement of him. To rescue her beloved, Psyche was required to complete an arduous task that is brought the beauty of the goddess of Death. After going through hardships, she finally found the small box that carried the goddess’ beauty, which was the death itself. Unfortunately, she could not resist the curiosity and opened the little box. At last, when Cupid escaped, only can he found the dead Psyche. He was so sorrowful that he leaned over to kiss his beloved. At that time, the miracle happened, Psyche brought back to life. After the catastrophe, Venus forgave them and they lived together.

In the mythological painting of The Abduction of Psyche, Bouguereau highlighted the subtleties of the human body with delicate brushwork to present the theme of love. What we could see was the lovers embraced each other, the soft and smooth body together with the purple tulle, added the sense of mystery of this painting. The man’s eyes looked to the right side, and the wings on his back brought them up. Under the embrace of him, the heroine seemed so happy and the look of enjoyment inebriety was fleshed. In a word, Bouguereau modeled poetic myth characters with his profound painting skills.