A study of the Three Hours spreading flowers

A facsimile engraving of a red chalk drawing now in the Musée Condé, Chantilly (inv. no. 56), where it is catalogued as by Raphael (c.1518) This is a study of the Three Hours for the Banquet of the Gods from the vault of the entrance loggia of the Farnesina, Agostino Chigi's villa in Rome, which was frescoed with mythological subjects by Raphael's workshop c.1518. This print is lettered at the bottom of the image with the name of Raphael, identified as the draughtsman, and the names of the printmaker and publisher. Annotation on the verso.

The fresco decoration in the Farnesina illustrates the classical fable of Cupid and Psyche, a story which was also frequently used to decorate Florentine wedding chests. Raphael's fresco scheme comprises two primary scenes in the vault (painted to resemble tapestries), accompanied by a series of episodes painted in the pendentives. The whole is encompassed within a fictive pergola, which gives the viewer the impression of looking up into the heavens. Only the upper part of the loggia is painted (the vault and its supporting pendentives and spandrels).