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Other Frescoes

Other Frescoes

AFTER GIOVANNI BATTISTA CASTELLO (C. 1510-1569)

Jupiter and Neptune

c.1853-76

Albumen print | 38.6 x 27.2 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 853968

A photograph of a drawing attributed to Giovanni Battista Castello in the Royal Collection, Windsor (RCIN 990490) depicting Jupiter. Ruland (1876) catalogued this drawing as being 'a study ... by G. Romano, for the group of Jupiter and Neptune' in the fresco depicting the Council of the Gods from the vault of the entrance loggia of the Farnesina, Agostino Chigi's villa in Rome. The loggia was frescoed with mythological subjects by Raphael's workshop c.1518. Annotated on verso.

Ruland noted that this drawing differed 'in many points' from Raphael's fresco. It is now identified as a study for Castello’s fresco of the Council of the Gods, in the vault of the Salone of the villa of Tobia Pallavicino in Genoa; although Castello chose a different moment of the narrative to paint, he was heavily influenced by Raphael's depiction of the story of the Council of the Gods, which he had presumably seen in Rome. See RCIN 853969 for a photograph of the verso of this drawing.

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).
  • Creator(s)

    After Giovanni Battista Castello (c. 1510-1569) (artist)

    After a work previously attributed to Giulio Romano (Rome c. 1499-Mantua 1546) (artist)

  • Left top / Raffaelle

  • 38.6 x 27.2 cm (sheet of paper)

  • Acquired for the Prince Consort's Raphael Collection (c.1853-76)

  • Subject(s)
    • Religion & Theology
      • Religions and faiths
        • Religions of antiquity
          • Classical mythology
            • Jupiter (myth)
            • Neptune (mythology)
  • Bibliographic reference(s)

    no.829 (P&W : Popham, A.E. & Wilde, J., 1949. The Italian Drawings of the XV and XVI Centuries in the Collection of His Majesty The King at Windsor Castle, London)
    pp.183-89 (Jones/Penny 1983 : Jones, R. and Penny, N. Raphael, 1983)