The Renaissance 'Prince of Painters' made a big impact in his short life

Raphael rarely forayed into mythology, but when his banker patron Agostino Chigi commissioned him to decorate part of his new villa in 1512, Raphael applied all his compositional genius and feeling for color to create “The Triumph of Galatea.” The most famous of the frescoes of the Villa Farnesina, the work depicts an episode from a story originally told by the Roman poet Ovid as Galatea escapes the cyclops. Surrounded by mermen, she drives a shell chariot pulled by dolphins.

In 1518 Raphael returned to his friend’s villa to design a room centered on the myth of Cupid and Psyche. The beautiful paintings, while sketched by Raphael, were almost entirely the creations of Raphael’s pupils: Giovanni Francesco Penni, Giulio Romano, and Giovanni da Udine.

Cardinal Alessandro Farnese aquired the Chigi Family mansion in 1580 and gave the villa its current name. In the image, the Loggia of Cupid and Psyche, whose vault was decorate by Raphael in 1518.