The Banquet of the Gods

An engraving with etching of the fresco depicting the Banquet of the Gods 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 print is lettered along the bottom with the name of Raphael, identified as the designer and the painter of the fresco, followed by the names of the intermediary draughtsman and the printmaker. Below this, the title, an explanation of the subject in Italian, and publication details with a dedication from Lorenzo Lazzari.

In 1814 Lazzari published a series of 31 plates after Raphael titled "La Favola di Psiche desegnata da Raffaelle Sanzio da Urbino...".

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).