What is the allure of doomed love_ _ Claude’s ‘The Enchanted Castle’ _ National Gallery

I love this painting for many reasons. The cool colour palette, the enchanted castle in the background, and a lone female figure looking pensively into the ocean. There's so many stories here, so many mysteries. It's also special because it inspired the romantic English poet John Keats and his poetry. I'm Sharmlee, I'm an artist and writer, and today I'll be talking to you about painting The Enchanted Castle by Claude. The Enchanted Castle represents a scene from the story of Psyche and Cupid, as recounted in the 2nd century Roman writer Apuleius' Metamorphoses. The story begins with Psyche's father finding out that his daughter will only find a husband if she's placed atop a rocky cliff exposed to the elements, as his mortal daughter has been deterred by many suitors because of her divine beauty. Luckily, the west wind Zephyr sympathises with Psyche and moves her to a castle that she can call home. However, the goddess Venus, jealous of Psyche's beauty, instructs her son Cupid to compel her to fall in love with a monster. Instead, Cupid falls in love with Psyche himself, arranging to meet her at the castle in secret during the night so as not to anger his mother. Psyche obliges but only on the condition that her two sisters can visit and stay with her in the castle. Once entering the castle and seeing the riches that surround Psyche, her two sisters become jealous and convince Psyche to find out who Cupid actually is. So Psyche, now also pregnant with Cupid's child, does this by waving an oil lamp at Cupid's face. Cupid, in anger, banishes Psyche from his castle. She is captured by Venus, who sets her on a series of very difficult tasks to prove her worth. Eventually, Cupid rescues Psyche, giving her a drink of immortality so they can stay together forever. So it ends on a happy note. So it seems that there's many characters in the story of Psyche and Cupid, but we only see Psyche in the painting. Psyche is shown alone and appears She seems as if she's contemplating what has happened to her. We can tell in the story that a lot does happen to her. She's placed in danger repeatedly, on top of a cliff face, in a castle all alone with what she is told to be a monster. She is essentially punished for her beauty because her higher power cannot control their own mortal emotion of jealousy. As we move backwards in this painting, more and more is revealed to us about what is essentially to come in her story. The rocky cliff face, the enchanted castle where the west wind places her, and we see the boat with the mysterious two people that we think might be her sisters. So it may be the case that the significance of Psyche alone in the painting is to pay tribute to the fact that although she is the mortal in a story of gods, she is actually the brave one. She is the beacon of light and is the central character of her story. It begs the question, why does a beautiful woman need to be brave too? Is a path of suffering something that she needs to go on? Let's talk about Claude's use of colours in the painting. So the general mood of the painting is built up by Claude's use of blues and greens. The colour scheme that Claude uses in his painting is what I think of as the blue hour palette. One that is made up just of colours in the blue hour. These are the colours that we see just before sunrise and just after sunset. They're usually cool blues and greens that are often soft. They appear just for 10 to 20 minutes and the blue hour in Psyche's story may be just after her story finishes. Claude makes us feel like this entire scene is timeless, as if we're watching Psyche for hours and hours on end in her meditative and melancholy state. The deer grazing peacefully by her side alludes to this timeless nature. So this is the esteemed castle in the piece that gives the title The Enchanted Castle. Apuleius, author of The Tale of Psyche and Cupid, describes a castle that houses Psyche to be built by the divine arts and we can see why. The castle is a mixture of ones that we would never see together in our mortal world. There is a connection to Rome. So what may have Claude's reasoning been behind this? It may allude to Apuleius's original quote So finally we'll end on a poem. The painting, especially the castle, was a muse to John Keats's poem, a reminiscence of Claude's castle. It goes like this. unto my friend while sick and ill he lies you know it well enough where it does seem a mossy place a merlin hall a dream oh that our dreamings all asleep or wake would all their colors from their sunset take rather than shadow our world's daytime into the void of night away you horrid moods moods of one's minds you know i hate them well you know i'd sooner be a clapping bell to some kamchatsan missionary church than with these horrid moods be left in lurch i love this poem for many reasons but it touches on every element of claude's painting although he doesn't mention psyche explicitly in the poem he does refer to horrid moods and it might be a reference to how she is feeling in this painting