Cupid and Psyche before the Council of the Gods
Primary
Luca Cambiaso
(Moneglia, Italy, 1527–El Escorial, Spain, 1585)
NationalityItalian, Europe
Dateearly 1570s
MediumPen and brown ink with brush and brown wash over traces of black chalk on cream antique laid paper
DimensionsSheet: 9 5/16 × 13 3/8 in. (23.6 × 34 cm)
Credit LineBlanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, The Suida-Manning Collection, 2017.962
Rights Statement
Collection AreaPrints and Drawings
Object number2017.962
On View
Not on viewPresentation to the gods was a natural theme for the decoration of the grand reception rooms of Genoa's noble families. Cambiaso treated these subjects on numerous occasions. This drawing, previously identified as Venus and Cupid before the council of the gods, in fact represents the wedding of Cupid and Psyche as described in Apuleius's Golden Ass–the only surviving anceint Roman novel–and as depicted by Raphael in the Villa Farnesian in Rome. Thus identified, the drawing can be connected to Cambiaso's lost ceiling fresco of Palazzo Grillo-Serra-Podestà.
Exhibitions
