A Young Hero near an Altar

An engraving of a young warrior wearing a helmet standing in front of a flaming altar, surrounded by pieces of armour. Signed with engraver's monogram on a slab at lower left: AV.

The figure of the warrior is derived from the figure of the armoured man standing below the niched statue of Apollo in Raphael's 'School of Athens', generally identified as Alcibiades. However, because of the slight differences between the two figures (including the helmet surmounted by a dragon and not, as in the fresco, by a plume) it has been suggested that the figure in Agostino's engraving may have been taken not from the fresco, but from a preliminary study for the figure.

A red chalk drawing now in the British Museum (inv. no.1946,0713.500) shows a figure corresponding exactly with the warrior in Agostino's engraving, except that it is undraped. Pouncey/Gere (1962) suggested that the drawing is an offset from what was a copy of a sheet of studies by Raphael for the figure of Alcibiades. For further discussion, see Bibliographic References.