Polyphemus

Around 1512 the richest banker in Rome, Agostino Chigi, was having his riverside pleasure villa painted by the finest hands money could reach. In one garden loggia Raphael set the sea nymph Galatea skimming across the water. Just beside her, on the same wall, this seated giant was painted by a young Venetian newcomer, Sebastiano del Piombo, who had brought the deep colour of Venice south to Rome. The giant is Polyphemus, the one-eyed cyclops of Homer, hopelessly in love with Galatea. Sebastiano placed him so that he gazes across the wall at her, watching her glide away from him, just out of reach.