A study of the Almighty

A photograph of a drawing catalogued by Ruland (1876) as having been in the collection of the 'late Dr Wellesley' at Oxford, and as being a study by Raphael for the roundel mosaic depicting the Eternal Father in the cupola of the chapel of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome, which was executed by Luigi de Pace in 1516 after Raphael's design. Trimmed to a circle.

The Chigi chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo was the burial place of the Papal banker Agostino Chigi, who commissioned Raphael to work on a number of projects in Rome during the 1510s. Raphael was responsible for designing the chapel itself as well as all aspects of its decoration, which encompassed mosaics, sculptures, tombs and (probably) an altarpiece. In the cupola of the chapel, a central roundel containing a depiction of God the Father is surrounded by compartments containing personifications of the seven planets and stars, all executed in mosaic. The chapel remained unfinished at the deaths of both artist and patron in 1520.