The father of Psyche sacrificing at the Temple of Apollo (oil on canvas)

This picture shows a king praying that his daughter, Psyche, will find a suitable husband. Unfortunately, Psyche’s beauty, knowledge of whose beauty became widespread throughout the lands, had provoked the jealousy of Venus, who condemned her to marry hideous creatures. Her story was told in the Roman Apuleius's novel, The Golden Ass Book 4. The painting was made in 1662 for Angelo Albertoni, a Roman nobleman, whose son Gasparo Altieri commissioned a second picture, The Arrival of Aeneas at Pallanteum, which was completed in 1675 as a pendant to Psyche.