DescriptionGaziantep Zeugma Museum Eros and Psyche mosaic 8258.jpg
English: From the Enc. Britt.: According to Apuleius, the jealous Venus commanded her son Cupid (the god of love) to inspire Psyche with love for the most despicable of men. Instead, Cupid placed Psyche in a remote palace where he could visit her secretly and, by his warning, only in total darkness. One night Psyche lit a lamp and found that the figure at her side was the god of love himself. When a drop of oil from the lamp awakened him, he reproached Psyche and fled. Wandering the earth in search of him, Psyche fell into the hands of Venus, who imposed upon her difficult tasks. Finally, touched by Psyche's repentance, Cupid rescued her, and, at his instigation, Jupiter made her immortal and gave her in marriage to Cupid.
This is a floor mosaic from the presence chamber in the Poseidon villa, representing the moment Psyche and her lover rejoin.
I have a large collection of pictures, some taken at the old museum, some of the same mosaics, but in the new museum. During my several visits (at least 6) almost each time light conditions had changed, and correcting for that is not always satisfactory, let alone getting the corrections the same for each picture of each mosaic. I disliked in particular how in the new museum led-spotlights were often used (a nasty development in many museums, not just in Turkey). I suppose they are efficient, but they give notable highlight spots that sometimes cannot be corrected for. I found they also vary in light temperature. Another annoyance is that in the new museum many mosaics are laid on a floor or a slightly raised platform, without offering a point of view from which to take a picture that, after maybe some perspective correction, looked natural. So in some cases I had to guess the amount of foreshortening that I had to correct.
Licensing
I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license:
to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
to remix – to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
share alike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same or compatible license as the original.