by: Raphael | Romano
patron: Cardinal Bibbiena
category: Fresco
location: Papal Palace
related artifacts:
Villa Stati Loggia Panel 6
note: This fresco was part of the larger decorative program for Cardinal Bibbiena's stufetta. The room, which measured a mere 2.5 m square (totaling a footprint of roughly 6.25 square meters), was positioned near the decorated loggie within the Vatican. Pietro Bembo noted in a 1516 letter to Bibbiena the need for him to “send more stories to paint in your stufetta” (Golzio 1936, 44), however, most scholars accept that the designs only were the work of Raphael. Much of the execution was owed to the workshop (for more, see: Late Raphael 2013: 31). The central zone of each wall of the stufetta was further subdivided into smaller frescoed panels that flanked either a window or door (on the western and eastern walls, respectively) or a recessed niche (on the remaining two walls). Around the room appeared eight mythological scenes in fresco: Venus and Adonis and The Birth of Erichtonios (northern wall); the Birth of Venus and Venus and Cupid on Dolphins (eastern wall) Venus Wounded (southern wall); and finally Pan and Syrinx as well as Venus Removing a Spine from Her Foot (western wall). Each was framed with a decorative border of different sea creatures.