Venus and Mars bathing

Giulio Romano had been Raphael's chief assistant in Rome, and in 1524 he left for Mantua, where Federico Gonzaga wanted a pleasure house on an island outside the city walls. He was painting this room between 1526 and 1528. In May 1527 the emperor's unpaid troops broke into Rome and sacked it for months, scattering the artists Giulio had come up among, while he went on covering a dining room with bathing gods.

The walls tell the story of Cupid and Psyche out of Apuleius, the Roman novel. On this stretch Venus and Mars step into a pool with putti fetching and carrying around them. Federico entertained Charles V at the Te in 1530, the year that same emperor raised him from marquis to Duke of Mantua.