Dutch and Flemish paintings from the Stafford collection

A print reproducing three paintings then in the collection of the Marquis of Stafford; in the centre is Rubens's Mercury and Psyche; above, a man drinking by Adriaen Van Ostade; below, a man singing a ballad by Arie de Vois. Lettered with titles, numbers (which relate to the printed text of the volume from which this sheet is taken), measurements of the paintings and, at bottom, publication details: 'LONDON / Published Decr 1 1813, by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown; J White; Cadell & Davies; & P.W. Tomkins. 54 New Bond Street'. India laid. A plate from volume three (the schools of Germany, Flanders and Holland) of 'Engravings of the Most Noble the Marquis of Stafford's Collection of Pictures in London: Arranged According to Schools and in Chronological Order with Remarks on Each Picture', 4 vols (London, 1810-18).

A number of the figures in the painting by Rubens are closely related to those in the pendentive frescos from the vault 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. 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).