A sibyl

A photograph of a drawing by Raphael in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (inv.no.WA 1846.203) of a sibyl, which is generally considered to be an early study for the figure of the sibyl on the right-hand side of the fresco The four sibyls painted by the workshop of Raphael c.1511-14 in the Chigi Chapel in Santa Maria della Pace, Rome. Annotated on verso.

As noted by Parker 1956 (see Bibliographic References), the pose of the sibyl seated closest to the centre of the composition on the right-hand side of the Chigi Chapel fresco is considerably different in the finished fresco to that shown in this drawing. The British Museum holds a drawing by Raphael for the same figure (inv.no.1953.1010.1) which is much closer to the pose of the sibyl in the finished fresco; Ruland (1876) does not catalogue the British Museum drawing, which appears to have been in the collection of the Duke of Rutland in the late nineteenth century.

Raphael was commissioned, probably early in 1511, by the banker Agostino Chigi to decorate his chapel in Santa Maria della Pace. The initial plan of decoration for the chapel included frescoes, two bronze roundels and an altarpiece; however, whilst Raphael executed some designs for the altarpiece, which was to depict the resurrection, it was never executed, and the bronze roundels, whilst cast, appear to never have been installed. The frescoes comprise two registers, with four prophets on the top  (flanking a window) and four sybils below. According to Vasari, portions of the frescoes were painted by Timoteo Viti.