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Other Frescoes

Other Frescoes

Venus pulling a thorn from her foot

c.1804-1814

Etching with engraving | RCIN 853880

A print by Pierre Audouin reproducing the fresco, designed by Raphael, depicting Venus pulling a thorn from her foot on the west wall of 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. Lettered below image with attribution of the design of the fresco to Raphael and its execution to his school, and the names of the draughtsman and printmaker. A coat of arms at the bottom. Annotated on verso. Before title.

Ruland (1876) catalogued this print as being after a 'picture at Mannheim', following a note in Passavant's monograph on Raphael (Rafael von Urbino und sein Vater Giovanni Santi, 1839, vol. 2, p. 281).

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. 
  • Added to the Prince Consort's Raphael Collection (c.1853-76)