The Third Privy Lodging Room, also known as the Square Table Room, contains 15 paintings attributed to major figures of the Italian Renaissance such as Raphael, Correggio, Parmigianino and Andrea del Sarto. No one artist dominates, although there are three paintings attributed at the time to Correggio.
The room's hang appears to be themed around family and upbringing, incorporating both sacred and secular subject matter. Out of the 15 paintings, there are eight family scenes.
Highlights include two exquisite canvases by Correggio, his Venus, Cupid and Satyr and Education of Cupid, which are recorded elsewhere in the inventories under the titles Venere Mundanus (earthly love) and Venere Coeleste (heavenly love) respectively. Both canvases came from the Mantua sale
c.1627–8 and were highly valued at the Sale, fetching £1,000 and £800.
Just as noteworthy is the Madonna and Child with St Anne from Mantua, attributed to Raphael, known as La Perla because on its later arrival in Spain Philip V is supposed to have referred to it as his 'pearl'. This painting was valued at £2,000 in the Sale Inventory, the highest value of any painting in the collection. It is particularly interesting that three of the most expensive individual paintings at the Sale – by Raphael and two by Correggio – hung together here. Finally, there is an imposing Madonna and Child with St John and an Angel by the Florentine artist Andrea del Sarto which also came from Mantua where it hung in the same room as the canvases by Raphael and Correggio. So in the Third Privy Lodging Room they are reunited.
