This website presents our knowledge and research on this important aspect of the Royal Collection. As of April 2026 it will not be regularly updated and new research on this topic will sit within the main website.

Vatican Frescoes

Vatican Frescoes

AFTER RAPHAEL (URBINO 1483-ROME 1520)

Studies for Apollo playing the 'viola da braccio'

c.1853-76

Albumen print | 31.1 x 22.1 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 852485

A photograph of a drawing by Raphael (c.1510) now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lille (inv. no.Pl 452). The studies connect with the figure of Apollo, seated at the centre of the composition in Raphael's fresco of Parnassus, painted in c.1510-11 in the Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican.
  • Creator(s)

    After Raphael (Urbino 1483-Rome 1520) (artist)

  • 31.1 x 22.1 cm (sheet of paper)

  • Acquired for the Prince Consort's Raphael Collection (c.1853-76)

  • Subject(s)
    • Religion & Theology
      • Religions and faiths
        • Religions of antiquity
          • Classical mythology
            • Apollo (myth)
    • Arts, Recreation, Entertainment & Sport
      • Music
        • Musical instruments
          • Viola da braccio (or violin)
    • Places
      • Europe
        • Greece
          • Mount Parnassus [Greece]
  • Bibliographic reference(s)

    p.191, no.237v (Joannides 1983 : Joannides, P., 1983. The Drawings of Raphael, with a complete catalogue, Oxford)

    pp.187-8, no.537r (Brejon de Lavergnée 1997 : Brejon de Lavergnée, B, 1997. Catalogue des dessins Italiens. Collections du Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, Paris)