FOLLOWER OF FRANCESCO PRIMATICCIO (1504-70)
Mercury descending from the clouds
c.1550RCIN 905971
This drawing, by a French artist familiar with the work of Primaticcio, was probably made as a study for an unidentified painting. Although the subject is not clear, Mercury’s role was often to interfere in the course of love, and he may be meddling in an affair between the seated woman and the goatherd seen in the distance.