Painted in 1513, Raphael’s Galatea embellishes a wall in the
Villa Farnesina, a pleasure villa built for Agostino Chigi, banker to Pope
Julius II, and for a few decades, the richest man in the Renaissance.
The Galatea takes its theme from classical
mythology. The beautiful nymph at the center of the composition is loved
by a brutish giant, Polyphemus, but his love is unrequited.
Galatea, and the surrounding sea creatures
and cupids, are painted as if they are sculptures come to life, and the spiral
motion of Galatea clearly suggests that Raphael studied the Laocoon and other Hellenistic
sculptures on view in Rome. Such sculptures would have been readily
accessible to the artists, as in 1515 he was made commissioner of antiquities in
Rome.
