The Martyrdom of St Cecilia

An engraving which is possibly a copy after a print which itself is a copy of an engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi. Marcantonio's original engraving may have been made after a (heavily retouched) preparatory drawing in Dresden (inv.no. C168) by Raphael for the lunette fresco The Martyrdom of St Cecilia, fragments of which now survive in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Narbonne. The fresco was part of the decoration in the chapel of the Villa Magliana, the papal villa in the Roman campagna, executed by Raphael's workshop c.1513-20. Trimmed on all sides.

The frescoes were commissioned from Raphael by Pope Leo X. They were detached from the chapel in the nineteenth century and fragments of two of them are now in the Louvre, Paris, and the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Narbonne.

This print is described by Ruland (1876) as being 'unknown to Bartsch'. It differs from the copies after Marcantonio's engraving listed by Bartsch in the absence of any lettering in the cartouche of Jupiter's throne, but is closest to what Bartsch terms 'Copy B'.