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About This Work
This delicate drawing depicts a standing nude woman in a contrapposto pose, looking downward with a gentle expression. The artist uses fine cross-hatching and precise contours on prepared paper to define the soft musculature and the play of light over her form. Her gesture and gaze suggest she is interacting with a figure, likely Cupid, who is not fully rendered in this study.
This work is a study for Raphael's decoration of the Villa Farnesina, which illustrates the myth of Cupid and Psyche from Apuleius' 'The Golden Ass'. During the Renaissance, this narrative was heavily interpreted through a Neoplatonic lens as an allegory for the human soul’s journey and its eventual union with Divine Love.
Connected Texts
Apuleius
The drawing is a preparatory study for a fresco cycle based on the 'Cupid and Psyche' episode from his 'Metamorphoses' (The Golden Ass).
Marsilio Ficino
Ficino's Neoplatonic theories on the 'two Venuses' (Celestial and Terrestrial) provided the philosophical framework for Raphael's depictions of the goddess.