We may not all be geniuses, but, as the Romans developed the concept, we all came to have one; even the gods were so endowed, with an essence, an animating spirit. We see them regularly on cameos, where they usually pass for the large-C Cupid. What differentiates the Geniuses (also Genii or Genij) from the God of Love is their means of transportation or their engagement in an activity characteristic of some other god. Sometimes they represent the occupations of simple mortals. (Another genius, from a somewhat different mold, is discussed in the article on The Genius of Peace.)
Giulio di Pietro di Filippo de’ Gianuzzi, also known as Giulio Pippi or, for his Roman birth, Giulio Romano, a student of Raphael who went on to a successful career of his own as a painter and architect, seems to have been the author of many of the images that made their way onto cameos, while others may be the work of the Master himself. They were preserved and disseminated through etchings made of drawings by Tommaso Piroli, after the original paintings, published by Pietro and Francesco Piranesi.
It is perhaps natural, since goats are appropriate companions for both Cupid and the woodland deity Pan, lusty creatures all, that the Génie de Pan/Genio di Pan may caper into view more often than any of the others.
The equally lusty god of wine and revelry, Bacchus/Dionysus, is so, ahem, spirited, his Genius has several variations, with his car drawn by fauns (or satyrs that are themselves geniuses) or by a panther and pantheress.
Although clearly part of the same tradition, not all of these figures and compostitions are known as Geniuses. The piece by Girometti in the Metropolitan Museum of Art is described as Cupid Masquerading as Bacchus. L'Amour du Vin Triomphant is drawn by a goat and a lion; wine can make a man a lover or a fighter. In this case, l'amour, literally "the love", is the equivalent of a small-C cupid, not the emotion. Similar terms in Italian are amoretto (pl., amoretti) and amorino (pl., amorini).
Cybele, primal mother of gods, is represented by her companion lions.
The god Apollo is usually seen travelling in a quadriga, a chariot drawn by four horses, particularly in his aspect as Sol, the Sun god. However, Romano departed from convention, upgrading the draft animals from mere horses to half lion/half eagle gryphons.
It would not be unreasonable to also see the little figure with a lyre as the Genius of Apollo, even though he is not part of the triumphal tradition.
Like her genius, Diana, goddess of the hunt and the inhabitants of the forests, also appears at times in a stag-drawn chariot.
While the horses are similar to those who draw the War God in Raphael's Days of the Week series, unlike his Raphaelian counterpart, the Genius of Mars does not stand to govern his chargers.
Can there be any question that this is the Genius of Ceres/Demeter, even though the butterfly suggests either Psyche or the carver thinks it is Cupid?
And of course, in a Renaissance revival presentation, the King of the Gods himself, Zeus/Jupiter/Jove, astride his eagle servant, thunderbolts in his pudgy fist, while his consort, Hera/Juno makes stately progress in a peacock-drawn chariot.
Although his name has become synonymous with the place of his abode, Hades (Pluto) is also an Olympian god. Here his Genius is shown, bident over his shoulder, transporting a fallen hero across the River Styx. The destination is presumably not the land of shades that awaits most of the departed but the fields of Elysium, reserved for the most valorous. The other participants in the triumph are the Genius of Victory, indicated by the palm frond he carries, and the Genius of Fame, blowing a horn to trumpet the hero's approach.
