The soul as a butterfly. From the myth of Psyche to the visual rhetoric of the Baroque

The soul visualized as a butterfly constitutes a universal symbol shared by very different civilizations. This study focuses exclusively on the symbol's trajectory or fortune in western culture. My point of departure is the myth of Eros and Psyche and its impact on the artistic visuality of Antiquity, in particular in its funerary context. The study continues on to document the relationship of the myth to Christianity's speculations on angelology. The analysis concludes with a consideration of the image of the butterfly as a device common to the visual rhetoric of the 16th and 17th centuries.