Mars and an angel

A print by Alexandre-Alphonse Leroy reproducing a drawing in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lille (inv.no.428). The drawing is considered to be a copy of a lost study by Raphael for the figures of Mars and the angel in the mosaic depicting Mars and the astrological symbols associated with him 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. Laid down on white paper on which has been printed a double-line border, an attribution of the drawing to Raphael, and the printmaker's name. Numbered at top right: Pl. II. Annotated on verso. Published as Plate 2 in 'Choix de dessins de Raphael qui font partie de la collection Wicar à Lille', Paris 1858.

The authorship of the reproduced drawing, which was originally part of the collection of drawings formed by the painter Jean-Baptiste Wicar and bequeathed by him to the Society of Sciences and Arts of Lille, has been debated; an alternative hypothesis is that the drawing is by Giulio Romano (see Joannides in Bibliographic References).

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.