GIULIO ROMANO
(b. ca. 1499, Roma, d. 1546, Mantova)

The Lovers (detail)

c. 1525
Oil on panel, transferred to canvas
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

The alarmed dog at the maidservant's feet points to a breach of marital fidelity. The bed's carved decoration of a satyr and nymph may allude to another of Zeus's amorous adventures, when he assumed the guise of a satyr to make love to the nymph Antiope.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.