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Other Frescoes

Other Frescoes

AFTER A WORK COPYING THE WORKSHOP OF RAPHAEL (URBINO 1483-ROME 1520)

Venus and Cupid

c.1853-76

Albumen print | 15.6 x 12.0 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 853918

A photograph reproducing an oil painting catalogued by Ruland (1876) as being then in the Rothpletz Collection at Aarau in Switzerland. The painting is related to a design by Raphael for the pendentive fresco depicting Venus and Cupid 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 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 a work copying the workshop of Raphael (Urbino 1483-Rome 1520) (artist)

  • 15.6 x 12.0 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
            • Venus (mythology)
            • Cupid
  • Bibliographic reference(s)

    pp.183-89 (Jones/Penny 1983 : Jones, R. and Penny, N. Raphael, 1983)