A study of a standing youth

A photograph of a black chalk figure drawing by Perugino in the Ashmolean, Oxford (inv. no.WA 1846.5) which, along with the similar study on the recto of the sheet (see RCIN 853672), was conjectured to be a rejected study for a fresco of the Adoration of the Magi executed by Perugino in 1504 in Città del Pieve by Fischel (see Bibliographic References). Annotated in ink on the verso.

This drawing was catalogued by Ruland (1876) as being 'a slight black-chalk study by Raphael for the standing figure of a youth' for the fresco 'Enea Silvio Piccolomini crowned Poet Laureate by Emperor Frederick III' painted by Pinturicchio and his workshop (1502-07/08) in the Piccolomini Library in Siena Cathedral. The decoration of the Piccolomini library was commissioned by Cardinal Francesco Todeschino Piccolomini (later Pope Pius III) in 1502 from Raphael's older Perugian contemporary Pinturicchio. The frescoes illustrate events in the life of Pope Pius II (Enea Silvio Piccolomini), the Cardinal's uncle. Vasari credited Raphael with executing 'some drawings and some cartoons' for the library at the express request of Pinturicchio. Scholarly opinion has been divided over the attribution of preparatory drawings for the frescoes, but at least five drawings convincingly related to the decorative scheme are considered to be by Raphael (see Bibliographic References).