A personification of an earthquake

A photograph of a silverpoint drawing attributed to Raphael now in the Pierpont Morgan Library (inv. no.1977.45). The drawing is a preparatory study for the personification of the earthquake at the bottom of the tapestry of 'St Paul in Prison', one from a set of ten tapestries commissioned by Pope Leo X for the Sistine Chapel. The tapestry designs were executed by Raphael and his workshop and transported to Flanders, where the tapestries were woven in the workshop of Pieter van Aelst. Three of the original cartoons are lost, including that of 'St Paul in Prison'. The remaining seven are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum on loan from the Royal Collection. The ten original tapestries, intended to be hung in the Sistine Chapel, are housed in the Vatican Museums.