The Fourteen Amorini: Cupid taming a lion

An etching after a detail of the fresco in 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. In the fourteen lunettes of the bays are Amorini or Cupids, with the attributes of the deities who have done homage to Love. This shows Cupid taming a lion and a sea-horse. Not in Ruland (1876).
Trimmed within platemark.

This print is part of a series of fourteen etchings by Gerard Audran. The first of the series bears a dedication to Charles Le Brun, court painter to Louis XIV, and the second is signed by Audran and bears publication details. The copper plates are in the collection of the Louvre and the prints depict each of the fourteen lunettes of the entrance loggia of the Farnesina.

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).