The Virgin kneeling in prayer

A photograph of a drawing by an artist from the circle of Perugino, formerly attributed to Raphael; part of the Libretto Veneziano, now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice (f.51v). A copy after the drawing is in the Teylers Museum, Haarlem (inv.no.K IX 30). A facsimile of the Venice drawing, published in Celotti's Disegni Originali, can be found at RCIN 851290.

The photograph shows the full-length Virgin, kneeling down, with her hands clasped in prayer.

This drawing is on the verso of a sheet depicting a man seen from behind (see RCIN 854653 for a photograph of the recto).

This drawing is part of the so-called Libretto di Raffaello or Libretto Veneziano, 53 sheets that used to be mounted in a volume. After complicated negotiations, the sketchbook was bought by the Accademia in the 1820s, after the death of Giuseppe Bossi, who was its previous owner. A number of scholars debated the author of the drawings (with many names proposed, such as Pinturicchio, Antonio da Viterbo, Eusebio del Giorgio, Girolamo Genga) and their date. In 1984, the drawings were catalogued as by an artist contemporary to Raphael, whose juvenile works he copied in this sketchbook (see Bibliographic References).