A view of Raphael's Cupid and Psyche loggia in the Villa Farnesina

A chromolithograph depicting a view of the entrance loggia of the Farnesina, Agostino Chigi's villa in Rome, which was frescoed with mythological subjects by Raphael's workshop c.1518. Below the primary image are outline etchings of a pendentive and two spandrels from the loggia, and its ground plan. Lettered with title in German and French along the bottom. A later reprint of Plate 17a of Ludwig Grüner, Fresco Decorations and Stuccoes of Churches & Palaces of Italy, during the Fifteenth & Sixteen Centuries, London 1844 (see RCIN 1194136 for this volume).

Grüner's volume of 1844 was dedicated to Prince Albert, with whom Grüner had a close acquaintance. Grüner had much experience reproducing Raphael's work, having previously engraved works in England and Italy attributed to the artist for various publications. In the 1844 publication, the illustrative prints are etchings, and a key is provided to inform the reader for the purpose of handcolouring the plates. The chromolithograph here appears to derive from the same plate, but perhaps has been produced via a transfer process. Additionally, another copy of the design was also published in an expanded edition of the volume in 1854, which differs from this impression through the addition of an English title to those in French in German.

The fresco decoration in the Farnesina illustrates the classical fable of Cupid and Psyche, a story which was also frequently used to decorate Florentine wedding chests. Raphael's fresco scheme comprises two primary scenes in the vault (painted to resemble tapestries), accompanied by a series of episodes painted in the pendentives. The whole is encompassed within a fictive pergola, which gives the viewer the impression of looking up into the heavens. Only the upper part of the loggia is painted (the vault and its supporting pendentives and spandrels).