Works by Giulio Romano

Giulio Romano trained as Raphael's assistant in Rome and from late 1524 worked for Federico Gonzaga in Mantua; most of his works below are drawings, among them pen-and-ink designs for the Palazzo del Te.

In Rome the young Giulio painted in the Vatican rooms and loggias from Raphael's designs, and after his master died in 1520 he took a leading part in finishing that work. The red chalk Sacrifice of Isaac, of about 1516–18, may have been started by Raphael and finished by Giulio, probably for a print; an angel swoops over Abraham while Isaac cowers on the altar. In The Holy Family, of about 1518–20, he follows Raphael's late manner, but the colour is metallic and the figures heavy-featured.

Gonzaga courted him from 1522, and the move to Mantua kept him away from the Sack of Rome in 1527. There he built the Palazzo del Te, begun around 1524 and finished a decade later, and designed its frescoes. Victory, Janus, Chronos and Gaea is a study for the vault of its Room of the Giants: Janus holds a key, Chronos a scythe with a snake round his neck, and Gaea crouches with her head on her hand. His assistants squared the drawings for that fresco for transfer. An Allegory of the Virtues of Federico II Gonzaga shows him changing his mind, with figures moved and corrections in white.

Collectors have long prized his drawings, and engravings of them by Marcantonio Raimondi helped carry Italian style across Europe. Hercules Resting after Killing the Hydra, of about 1535, fits no known project: the hero sprawls with his club while the severed heads litter the ground.

Sources: Wikipedia, J. Paul Getty Museum. Portrait: Titian.