It might seem surprising that there are small cupids flying among the trees in this copperplate engraving but none in Raphael’s (1483-1520) fresco The Parnassus, which Marcantonio Raimondi has partly copied. Raphael’s monumental fresco itself adorns an arched niche in the Vatican. It is not clear whether Raimondi based his print on a drawing by Raphael – in which case the drawing has been lost – or whether on his own initiative – or perhaps that of Raphael – he made a rather free version of Raphael’s fresco The Parnassus. In Raimondi’s copperplate engraving, which Ferdinand Ruscheweyh has copied quite accurately, the motif takes up the whole of the square sheet of paper. The question is still discussed as to whether Raphael himself can have encouraged Raimondi to alter the motif. Raphael’s fresco is once and for all linked to the papal architecture. Raimondi, on the other hand broke the motif away from its original surroundings. He was also addressing a quite different public, as the motif was transformed into a comparatively small copperplate engraving, typically bound together with a number of other prints in the form of a book and purchased to go through page by page at home, in private.
