Psyche and hers Sisters

Polidoro da Caravaggio painted this Psyche and Her Sisters around 1527, depicting the mythological episode from Apuleius's Golden Ass in which Psyche's envious sisters plot against her happiness with Cupid. Polidoro was one of Raphael's most gifted assistants, specializing in the painted façades and classical frieze compositions that transformed the visual environment of Rome before the catastrophic Sack of 1527. His Psyche and Amor cycle drew on Raphael's own treatment of the myth for the Villa Farnesina, adapting the refined classical figures and mythological narrative for collectors' secular decoration. The myth of Psyche—the mortal girl who loves a god and undergoes trials before her apotheosis—was one of the most richly developed mythological narratives in Renaissance painting, its combination of human love and divine transformation offering extensive narrative material.

The panel demonstrates the artistic techniques characteristic of early sixteenth-century painting, with the careful rendering and color harmonies typical of the period's production.