.

1512

Fresco

295 × 224 cm

Villa Farnesina, Rome

The Triumph of Galatea is a fresco masterpiece completed in 1512 by the Italian painter Raphael for the Villa Farnesina in Rome;

The Farnesina was built for the Sienese banker Agostino Chigi, one of the richest men of that age. The Farnese family later acquired and renamed the villa, smaller than the more ostentatious palazzo at the other side of the Tiber. The fresco is a mythological scene of a series embellishing the open gallery of the building, a series never completed which was inspired to the "Stanze per la giostra" of the poet Angelo Poliziano. In Greek mythology, the beautiful Nereid Galatea had fallen in love with the peasant shepherd Acis. Her consort, one-eyed giant, Polyphemus, after chancing upon the two lovers together, lobbed an enormous pillar and killed Acis.

Raphael did not paint any of the main events of the story. He choose the scene of the nymph's apotheosis (Stanze, I, 118-119). Galatea appears surrounded by other sea creatures whose forms are somewhat inspired by Michelangelo, whereas the bright colors and decoration are supposed to be inspired by ancient Roman painting. At the left, a sturdy Triton (partly man, partly fish) abducts a sea nymph; behind them, another Triton uses a shell as a trumpet. Galatea rides a shell-coach drawn by two dolphins.

Vasari states that Raphael did not mean for Galatea to resemble any one human person, but to represent the ideal beauty. The nymphs gaze are therefore directed upward to heaven, perhaps to the one little cherubic Cupid whose arrows are still held in the quiver. Either way, both are gazes reflecting Platonic love. Rumor holds that the painter used as a model, Agostino Chigi's lover, the courtesan Imperia, and that Raphael took advantage of the sessions and the absences of the banker to woo the woman.

Seeing this theme of a woman abiding the waves on a shell reminds us of the now-ubiquitous image of The Birth of Venus by Botticelli (1483). However, that high-renaissance icon scuds effortlessy in a placid ocean; Raphael's Galatea swivels forward, urged on by gallivanting dolphins and a boisterous crowd of nereids and mermen.

Coming to the capital of Christendom, he comes also for the first time under the full influence of the antique world, pagan art, pagan life, and is henceforth an enthusiastic archaeologist. On his first coming to Rome a papal bull had authorised him to inspect all ancient marbles, inscriptions, and the like, with a view to their adaptation in new buildings then proposed. A consequent close acquaintance with antiquity, with the very touch of it, blossomed literally in his brain, and, under his facile hand, in artistic creations, of which the Galatea is indeed the consummation. Walter Horatio Pater

The loveliest Galatea in art is Raphael's, in the Farnesina Palace in Rome. It has wonderful apprehension of the perennial joy of the Greeks. Galatea is seen riding in her shell, drawn by dolphins, the breeze in her draperies, and her head turned with a charming grace toward the light. She is surrounded by water-nymphs, Tritons, and Cupids, and, on the shore, a centaur, with a sea-nymph riding upon his back. Nothing could be more suggestive of the dashing waves and briny foam than this glowing picture. Cupids in the air all aim their arrows at Galatea; no doubt Acis is somewhere about. The Galatea is full of original touches. The sea-divinities are of rather individual forms, and the nymph, who is caught by the Triton, is charmingly coquettish. The Triton himself has a Roman nose; it was a good bit of local colour for Raphael to introduce this type. Taine alludes to this Triton as clutching and enfolding the nymph in his " nervous arms," saying that he " displays the alertness and spirit of an animal god, inhaling with the soft air of the sea huge drafts of force and contentment." The curve of the figure of the blond nymph, carried off on the back of a god, is also most alluring. Winckelmann, in his " History of Ancient Art," criticizes Raphael's Galatea, saying, " The figure is so disposed that the breast, the most beautiful part of the naked female form, is completely covered by one arm, and the knee which is in view is much too cartilaginous for a person of youthful age, to say nothing of a divine nymph." He also says that the conception of the head of Galatea is too common, that it is not as beautiful a type as Raphael might have found. Raphael's own letter to Balthassar Castiglione may be quoted in this connection : " With regard to the Galatea, I should consider myself a great master, if it possessed but half the merits of which your lordship speaks in your letter. But I attribute your praises to the love you bear me. To paint a beautiful woman, I need to have numerous models before me, and your lordship at hand to aid me with your judgment ; but having here so few beautiful models, and such a scarcity of good judges, I work upon a certain idea that presents itself to my mind. Whether this idea has any artistic excellence, I know not; but I do my best to attain it."
Julia De W. Addison

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Speaking of Raphael’s use of mythological subjects, though not quite in the order of time, we may here mention his frescos illustrating the story of Cupid and Psyche, painted on the walls and ceiling of the same nobleman’s palace, the Chigi palace. The drawings for these pictures were made by Raphael, but most of the painting was done by his pupils. Jennie Ellis KeysorGreat Artists, Vol 1., Raphael, Rubens, Murillo, and Dürer