Psyche approaching Cupid asleep on a baldaquin bed
WAG 1995.62
Information
Carlo Urbino was the author of the Codex Huygens, a Renaissance manuscript for a treatise on painting, with studies of proportion and perspective partly based on the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519). Some of the drawings in the Codex are faithful copies of now lost originals by Leonardo.
Some of Urbino's frescoes use the skills in perspective demonstrated in the Codex. These include the frescoes in the Santuario di S Maria in Campagna, Pallanza, on which he collaborated with Aurelio Luini (1530-1593). Luini was once thought of himself as the author of the Codex.
The name of the codex refers to its former owner, Constantijn Huygens (1628 - 1697), secretary to King William III of England. Huygens acquired the manuscript believing that it was an autograph work by Leonardo.