Art Appreciation Lecture Series 2021

Love, sex and death: The constant companions of art

A tale of tormented Love: Cupid and Psyche in the Palazzo del Te

Lorraine Kypiotis
24/25 February 2021

Lecture summary:

In 1521 Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, decided he needed a country retreat: a place where he
could meet with his mistress beyond the prying eyes of the court. He chose as his architect Giulio Romano
who conceived the Palazzo del Te as a pleasure palace: a “small residence to which the Duke could
retire sometimes to feast, or dine for pleasure”. The Sala di Amore e Psiche (The room of Cupid and
Psyche) was dedicated to the explicit and erotic scenes from the stories of tormented love in
mythology including Jupiter’s famous seductions. It reaches its climax in the fresco of the
sumptuous wedding banquet of Cupid and Psyche.

Slide list
All works by Giulio Romano unless stated otherwise

1. Giulio Romano, Palazzo del Te, Mantua (1525-35)

2. Mantegna, Camera degli Sposi, Castello di San Giorgio, Mantua (1474)
3. Titian, Portrait of Giulio Romano (1536)
4. Raphael, Wedding banquet of Cupid and Psyche, Villa Farnesina, Rome (1517-18)
5. Titian, Portrait of Federico II Gonzaga, 1529 (Prado)
6. Giulio Romano, Portrait of Margherita Paleologa,1531 (Royal Collection)
7. Giulio Romano, Salamander impresa of Federigo Gonzaga, La Camera delle Imprese,
Palazzo del Te (1526)
8. Giulio Romano, Mount Olympus Impresa, La Camera delle Imprese, Palazzo del Te (1526)
9. Stanza del Sole (Room of the Chariots of the Sun and Moon), Palazzo del Te
10. Sala dei Cavalli, (Room of the Horses), Palazzo del Te
11. Sala di Psiche (Room of Cupid and Psyche), Palazzo del Te
12. Details: Ceiling

Proudly sponsored by:

 13. Details: Octagons
14. Details: Lunettes
15. Details: Inscription
16. Detail: Ceiling central panel - The marriage of Cupid and Psyche
17. The South wall: The feast of the gods
18. The Western wall: the rustic feast
19. The North wall: Mars and Venus bathing / Bacchus and Ariadne / Adonis is chased by Mars
from the chamber of Venus
20. Bacchus and Ariadne
21. Jupiter and Olympias
22. Polyphemus, Galatea and Acis
23. Pasiphae, Daedalus and the cow
24. Sala di Psiche (Room of Cupid and Psyche)
25. Palazzo del Te

References:

Bazzotti, Ugo Palazzo Te: Giulio Romano's Masterwork in Mantua (2013)

Cole, Alison Art of the Renaissance Courts: Virtue and Magnificence (1995)

Hartt, Frederick “Gonzaga Symbols in the Palazzo del Te” Journal of the Warburg and
Courtauld Institutes. Vol. 13, No. 3/4 (1950), pp. 151-188

For access to all past lecture notes visit:

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/members/events/love-sex-and-death-2021/