A cupid

A photograph of a drawing of a cupid catalogued by Ruland (1876) as a 'cartoon-fragment', previously in the collection of the Hofrath von Dräxler at Vienna, for the fresco The triumph of Galatea painted by Raphael in the loggia of the Villa Farnesina, Rome c.1512. Annotated on verso.

The triumph of Galatea was Raphael's first commission from the Papal banker Agostino Chigi for the Villa Farnesina; he later also frescoed the villa's entrance loggia, as well as working on the banker's chapels in Santa Maria del Popolo and Santa Maria della Pace, both also in Rome. Raphael's literary source for his depiction of Galatea was a poem by Poliziano which celebrated the victory of Giuliano de'Medici in a joust of 1475. Contemporaneously, Sebastiano del Piombo painted a fresco adjacent to Raphael's, again based on Poliziano's poem, depicting the giant Polyphemus. It seems likely that a full cycle of frescoes was planned for the loggia but that this plan was abandoned, for reasons unknown.