Editing Byblis (section)

==''Caunus and Byblis'' in art==
Between 1706 and 1715, the sculptor [[Pierre Le Gros the Younger]], working in [[Rome]], was faced with the [[Antiques restoration|restoration]] of a fragmented antique group of ''[[Amor and Psyche]]'' for the Portuguese [[ambassador]]. Thriving on invention, he turned the love story on its head and depicted the theme of ''[[Caunus and Byblis]]'' in which Caunus vehemently defends himself against the sexual advances of his sister. While Le Gros' invention ended up in Germany and was purified back to ''Amor and Psyche'' before being destroyed in a fire in 1931, it triggered a rafter of drawings, reproductions and copies by for example [[Pompeo Batoni]], [[Francesco Carradori]], [[Martin Gottlieb Klauer]] and, best known of all, two marble versions by [[Laurent Delvaux]]. The most faithful impression of what Le Gros' invention looked like is a [[plaster cast]] in [[Tiefurt House]] near [[Weimar]].<ref>Gerhard Bissell, ''Haud dubiè Amoris & Psyches imagines fuerunt statuæ istæ'', in: Max Kunze, Axel Rügler (ed.), ''Wiedererstandene Antike. Ergänzungen antiker Kunstwerke seit der Renaissance'' (Cyriacus. Studien zur Rezeption der Antike, Band 1), München 2003, pp. 73-80.</ref>