Subtle changes in tone- from pale wash to dark ink to white gouache- suggest the flicker of light across a low-relief sculpture or, given the oval shape, perhaps a cameo. In fact, the drawing relates to a ceiling panel in a room depicting the story of Psyche, the beautiful mortal adored by the god of love. Here, Cupid (shown as a winged boy) presents his beloved to the supreme deity, Jupiter, during an assembly of the gods. Cupid's father, Mercury, messenger to the gods, can be identified by his winged cap and caduceus (or staff). The Dalmatian-born Schiavone, who spent much of his career in Venice, took the monumental composition from a painting by Raphael and the elongated style of the figures from Mannerist examples; the weblike representation of light and air, however, is entirely his own and relates to his inventive work as an etcher.
The composition of this large pictorial drawing derives from and reverses the fresco by Raphael and his workshop of the same subject on the ceiling of the loggia at the Villa Farnesina (Rome), while the graceful, elongated physical types reveal the influence of Parmigianino and Francesco Salviati (in Venice in 1539). Schiavone's extraordinary technical virtuosity and originality are apparent in the masterful play of broad accents of light and shade over the surface of the friezelike group. According to Francis L. Richardson, the drawing served as a modello for one of the lost scenes of the story of Psyche painted on the ceiling of a room in the Castello di San Salvatore near Susegana (Conegliano), and which is known from Carlo Ridolfi's description of 1648. The oblong format with rounded ends would be consistent with that of a ceiling panel.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Cupid Presenting Psyche to the Gods
Artist:Andrea Schiavone (Andrea Meldola) (Italian, Zadar (Zara) ca. 1510?–1563 Venice)
Date:ca. 1540–45
Medium:Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, highlighted with white, over traces of black chalk, on brown-washed paper
Dimensions:14-3/4 x 23-3/4 in. (37.4 x 60.3 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1963
Accession Number:63.93
Inscription: Annotated in graphite on reverse of old mount, Venus and Mercury summoned before Jupiter and Juno, / (Assembly of the Gods) / Parmeggiano. Annotated in an old hand in pen and brown ink on verso of mount, SW 274.
Marking: Two marks of C.R. Rudolf (Lugt 2811b) appeared stamped in brown, one on the verso of the mount, the other on the mat. The corner of the mount bearing the mark was removed and is now in the Drawings Department archives.
Possibly Samuel Woodburn (British); Dr. Carl Robert Rudolf; his sale, Sotheby's, London, May 21, 1963, lot 11, repr.; Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Italian Renaissance Drawings from New York Collections," November 9, 1965–January 9, 1966.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "Venetian Drawings from American Collections," September 29, 1974–November 24, 1974.
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth. "Venetian Drawings from American Collections," December 7, 1974–February 9, 1975.
Saint Louis Art Museum. "Venetian Drawings from American Collections," February 6, 1975–April 6, 1975.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "15th and 16th Century Italian Drawings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 16–April 17, 1983.
Royal Academy of Arts, London. "The Genius of Venice 1500-1600," November 25, 1983–March 11, 1984.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," November 27, 1995–February 25, 1996.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," January 12–April 4, 2004.
Venice. Museo Correr. "'Splendori' del Rinascimento a Venezia: Schiavone tra Parmigianino, Tintoretto e Tiziano," November 28, 2015–April 10, 2016.
Frankfurt. Städel Museum. "Tizian und die Renaissance in Venedig," February 13–May 26, 2019.
Old Master Drawings from the Collection of Mr. C. Robert Rudolf. Exh. cat.: London, Arts Council Gallery; Birmingham, City Museum and Art Gallery; Leeds, Leeds CIty Art Gallery. Arts Council of Great Britain, London, 1962, no. 62, pl. 3 (as "Psyche Received into Olympus"), ill.
Jacob Bean, Felice Stampfle Drawings from New York Collections, Vol. I: The Italian Renaissance. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1965, p. 69, no. 116, repr.
Alessandro Ballarin "Jacopo Bassano lo studio di Raffaello e dei Salviati." Arte Veneta. vol. 21, Venice, 1967, pp. 89-90, fig. 103 (republished in Alessandro Ballarin, Jacopo Bassano. Scritti 1964-1995, Padua 1995, pp. 97-125), ill.
Francis L. Richardson Unpublished doctoral dissertaion. PhD diss., 1971 pp. 258 - 260, no. 176, fig. 80.
Terisio Pignatti Venetian Drawings from American Collections. A Loan Exhibition. Exh. cat., The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Kimbell Art Museum, Forth Worth, and Saint Louis Art Museum. Washington, D. C., 1974-75, p. 13, no. 16, ill.
Francis L. Richardson "Some Pen Drawings by Andrea Schiavone." in Master Drawings. vol. 14, no. 1, 1976, pp. 35-36, fig. 5.
William R. Rearick Maestri veneti del Cinquecento: Porta, Schiavone, Jacopo Bassano, Tintoretto, Paolo Veronese, Francesco and Leandro Bassano, Zelotti, Farinati, Palma il Giovane, etc.. Biblioteca di disegni (v.6), Florence, 1980, no. 5, repr.
Francis L. Richardson Andrea Schiavone. Oxford, 1980, pp. 39, 129, no. 185, fig. 116.
Jacob Bean, Lawrence Turčić 15th and 16th Century Italian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1982, pp. 234-35, no. 236, fig. 255.
David McTavish in The Genius of Venice: 1500 - 1600. Exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts, London. Ed. by Jane Martineau, and Charles Hope, London, 1984, pp. 279-80, no. D53.
Terisio Pignatti, Giandomenico Romanelli Drawings from Venice. Masterworks from the Museo Correr, Venice. Exh. cat., New York, The Drawing Center. New York-London, 1985, p. 15, fig. 10.
Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann, Carolyn Logan Creative Copies, Interpretative Drawings from Michelangelo to Picasso. Exh. cat., April 9 - July 23. The Drawing Center, New York, 1988, pp. 50-52, no. 9, repr.
Vincenzo Mancini "I Pellegrini e la loro villa a San Siro." Bollettino del Museo Civico di Padova. 1991, pp. 193-95.
Caterina Furlan, Vittoria Romani Dal Pordenone a Palma il Giovane: devozione e pietà nel disegno veneziano del Cinquecento. Exh. cat., Chiesa di San Francesco, Pordenone. Milan, 2000, p. 77.
Vincenzo Mancini "Aggiornamento su Lambert Sustris." Saggi e memorie di storia dell'arte. Vol. XXIV, 2000, p. 14.
Bert W. Meijer "À propos de quelques dessins de Lambert Sustris" Francesco Salviati et la Bella Maniera. Actes des Colloques de Rome et de Paris (1998). Collection de l'école française de Rome, no. 284.. Ed. by Catherine Monbeig Goguel, Philippe Costamagna, Rome, 2001, pp. 663, 719 (with incorrect inv. no.).
Sara dell'Antonio "Per Andrea Schiavone disegnatore." Studi sul disegno padano del Rinascimento. Ed. by Vittoria Romani, Verona and Padua, 2010, pp. 231, 246-47, no. 3, fig. 3.
Splendori del Rinascimento a Venezia: Schiavone tra Parmigianino, Tintoretto e Tiziano Exh. cat. Venice, Museo Correr. ed. by Lionello Puppi, and Enrico Maria dal Pozzolo, Milan, 2015, pp. 347-48, no, VIII.3 (entry by Francesca Cocchiara).
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