View of the Sala di Psiche (south wall)
by GIULIO ROMANO, Fresco
Federico Gonzaga engaged Giulio Romano to decorate the pleasure palace on the outskirts of Mantua where he stabled his horses and housed his mistress. The name of the Palazzo del T� is derived from the island on which it was situated.
The general decorative scheme of the Sala di Psiche, the room that contains the Banquet of Cupid and Psyche is indebted to Raphael’s design for the Villa Farnesina in Rome, also built as a retreat for the patron and his mistress.