After
Giulio Romano
, Italian, 1499-1546
Title
Apollo in his Chariot (from the Sala del Sole, Palazzo del Té, Mantua)MediumBrown ink and wash with white highlights on paper
Dimensions
28 x 21.5 cm
Credit LinePurchased, 1864
Object numberNGI.2325
DescriptionGiulio Romano's masterpiece, as an architect and painter, was the Palazzo del Té, constructed for Federico II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua. Between the years c.1526-34, along with a team of assistants, Romano (Raphael's protégé) painted its chambers with spectacularly illusionistic frescos. In the Sala del Sole, he depicted, through the use of dramatic foreshortening, human and equine anatomies in complex positions, with billowing cloaks and thrashing tails, on the ceiling above the viewer. This drawing is a copy after a section of the fresco.