Cupid and Psyche in a basin, washed and dressed by putti.

Engraving, 29,5 x 37,5 cm (trimmed just outside the borderline, edges strengthened on verso, pencil sketching on verso).

Stuck by left margin under passe-partout.

Very fine dark impression of the left part of the "Marriage of Cupid and Psyche", a composition of three plates engraved by the daughter of Giovanni Battista Ghisi. Her work reflects the changing Renaissance climate when female artists were gradually provided greater opportunities. Not having any formal apprenticeship, Diana used the work of Giulio Romano as a source of inspiration, hence this engraving after Romano's fresco in the "Camera di Amore e Psyche" of the Palazzo del Te in Mantua. Although she most often signed her work “Diana Mantuana” or “Diana Mantovana” to reference the city in which she was born, she moved to Rome after her marriage to the aspiring architect Francesco da Volterra in 1575. With her father as an engraver for the Mantuan court of the Gonzaga family, she was careful to maintain beneficial patronage in Mantua after leaving for Rome and dedicated this "Marriage of Cupid and Psyche" to Claudio Gonzaga. Dated 1 September 1575, it was published only a few months after she received the Papal Privilege to make and market her own work on 5 June 1575. Diana was one of the few women artists whom Vasari praised for her engraving technique in the 1568 edition of his Lives.
Ref. Bartsch (Diane Ghisi) 40.