The Fourteen Amorini: Cupid taming a lion

A facsimile engraving of a drawing by Pietro da Cortona 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. Publication details, the name of the intermediate draughstman and the identification of Raphael as the painter of the fresco are at the bottom centre. Trimmed within platemark. Annotated on the verso.

Stefano Mulinari made his reputation by engraving reproductions of the drawings of the great Italian painters and many prints of drawings by Cortona after Raphael are known. 

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).