Sea-Nymph and Two Putti Astride a Dolphin. Verso of lining: Sketch of a Vase

The Morgan sheet is one of many drawings by Cambiaso and members of his studio showing a sea-nymph frolicking with two or more putti and a dolphin, holding a banderole. Other versions of the subject are in the Louvre (inv. 9318, 9319, 9320, 9317); Metropolitan Museum, New York (inv. 87.12.17, probably a copy); and the Harvard Art Museums (inv. 1965.368). The ultimate source of the image is Raphael’s fresco of Galatea in the Villa Farnesina, Rome, as in particular the Fogg drawing makes clear. The only known painted version by Cambiaso of the subject depicts Venus on a shell astride a dolphin with Cupid and is in the Galleria Borghese, Rome (inv. 123; Moreno and Stefani 2000, 246, no. 17).