The Head of Venus

A photograph reproducing a fragment of a cartoon attributed to Giulio Romano in the Albertina Museum, Vienna (inv.no.17633) for the fresco depicting Venus and Adonis in the Villa Stati in Rome, executed c.1520. Annotated on verso.

The frescoes in the Villa Stati (now detached and dispersed) are enlarged repetitions of the mythological scenes designed by Raphael for the stufetta, or bathroom, in the apartments of Cardinal Bibbiena in the Vatican Palace. The stufetta was frescoed with mythological subjects by Raphael's workshop c.1516.

Cardinal Bibbiena had a close friendship with Raphael, patronising him on a number of occasions and, it would seem, facilitating the betrothal of the artist to his niece. In addition to the stufetta, Raphael's workshop also painted Cardinal Bibbiena's loggia. Both spaces were designed in a manner imitating ancient Roman painted decoration, and included depictions of episodes from Ovid, grotesques and ornamental motifs. The stufetta was rediscovered in the nineteenth century and survives in a much damaged form today; the loggetta was not rediscovered until the twentieth century.