A study for the fresco 'The sybils'

A photograph of a drawing catalogued by Ruland (1876) as by Raphael, and as a study for a group of figures on the left-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.

According to Ruland (1876), this drawing was then in the collection of the Dowager Queen of Saxony (presumably Amalie Auguste of Bavaria, Queen of Saxony 1854-73).

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.