Psyche ascending to Olympus with Proserpina’s vase

This large sheet represents Psyche who, borne by putti, brings a vessel to Venus in Olympus. The iconography was inspired by Raphael’s fresco in the Loggia of Psyche in the Villa Farnesina in Rome (fig. 1). Cambiaso’s composition was engraved by Johann Gottlieb Prestel and appears as plate 45 in the series of prints entitled Cinquante estampes gravés par J.T. Prestel d’après les dessins originaux de la même grandeur des meilleurs peintres d'Allemagne, des Pays-Bas et d’Italie, tirés de divers célèbres cabinets, published in 1814 (fig. 2).

Cambiaso employed a similar figure in other compositions such as in several versions of Psyche carried by Mercury (see B. Suida Manning and W. Suida, Luca Cambiaso. La vita e le opere, Milan, 1958, nos. 178-180, ill.). The figure was also utilized by the artist, with some variations, for the representation of the Apotheosis of Mary Magdalen, of which one autograph version and a copy are at the Louvre (inv. 9261 and 9423; see F. Mancini, Dessin Genois XVIe -XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 2017, nos. 59 and 60, ill.). Of the several known versions of this figure, this appears to be the finest.

Fig. 1. Raphael, Psyche brings a vessel to Venus. Villa Farnesina, Rome.
Fig. 2. Johann Gottlieb Prestel, Psyche brings a vessel to Venus. Etching. British Museum, London.