From “The Quest for Theseus” by A.G. Ward:

…Fittingly enough, it is in his work that the theme of Pasiphae and the bull returns to major art. He tackled it at least twice. A large fresco in the Palazzo del Te in Mantua shows Pasiphae stepping (fully clothed) into the wooden cow made for her by Daedalus, who stands next to it helping her. The bull is below on the right, gazing up at the cow yearningly. In another fresco, in the Villa Madama in Rome (of which a drawing survives in the Uffizi) Giulio showed Daedalus at work on the cow with mallet and chisel. It is a charming scene of busy activity, with a crowd of cupids lending their assistance by sawing and carrying wood.

The painters of the school of Fontainebleau took up the theme as well as the style. An engraving by Antoine Caron might almost be based on the Giulio Romano drawing. The cow stands on a wooden platform and Daedalus is putting on the finishing touches; again helpful cupids cluster round him. (As a final postscript to this subject, we might look forward to Jean Ie Maire in the seventeenth century. His scene is heavily Classical, with Daedalus working in a colonnaded tunnel-vaulted arcade. Pasiphae stands nearby, leaning gracefully on the bull's shoulder, waiting for Daedalus to finish.)

Eroticism was not confined to this bizarre episode, which must surely have been blatantly abnormal in any age. Other artists could convey sophisticated sensuality in more acceptable ways, and two types of Bacchus and Ariadne pictures became especially popular...