The Three Graces (Venus, Ceres & Juno) after Raphael. Sanguine chalk on irregularly trimmed watermarked paper mounted onto another sheet of similar cream color paper, matted with a hand-wrapped ivory pongee silk mat, in a bright gold leaf burnished frame with corner ornaments, under museum glass. The sight size measures 17-3/4" x 11-1/4", and with the framing overall it measures 25" x 18-1/8". The sheet is mounted in a hinged archivally backed matting with barrier tape between the silk and the paper. The sheet itself is held in place with archival corners. In pencil on the verso of the sheet is written "Psyche shown to the Graces, Rafael, Farnesina Palace (figure 1517)...an 18th Century study" at the lower left corner, and in ink at the lower right corner of the verso "Disegnaro Dasapo Ferrato" with numbers in pencil. The same inscription is seen in ink at the lower right corner of the recto.
The small two-story Villa Farnesina on the banks of the Tiber was built in 1509 for the Sienese papal banker, Agostino Chigi, as a residence for his mistress. After Chigi, the villa was purchased by the Farnese family (thus the name) and connected by a bridge across the Tiber to the huge Palazzo Farnese on the opposite bank. The garden loggia (1518-19) has frescoes painted by Raphael and his assistants. Painted bands of foliage line each of the groins in the vaulting. Two frescoes on the ceiling depict incidents in the story of Cupid and Psyche which took place in heaven. Scholars suggest that the story cycle alludes to Chigi's own life, and his recent marriage, and thus represents an epithelamion.
2,000/2,500
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