Sappho and Eros

About the Work

The fact that the scene is depicted from below leads to the assumption that this drawing served as a study for the ceiling decoration of a palazzo. It portrays Sappho – the famous poetess of ancient Greece, servant to Aphrodite and authoress of hymns to the gods and poems of love – looking down from a cloud. Presumably on account of her amorous lyrics she is associated here with Venus and accompanied by a boy Amor armed with a bow. Farinati made few corrections as he developed the figure. Traces of the preliminary drawing of the unclothed figure are still to be seen in the area of the thighs, which the artist later draped with the cloth of the figure’s cloak.