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

ADOLPHE ANDRÉ WACQUEZ (B. 1814)

Studies for Apollo playing the 'viola da braccio'

published 1858

Crayon-manner, printed in brown ink | 31.6 x 22.7 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 852486

A facsimile of a drawing by Raphael (c.1510) now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lille (inv. no.Pl 452). Published in 'Choix de dessins de Raphael qui font partie de la collection Wicar à Lille', Paris 1858. 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)

    Adolphe André Wacquez (b. 1814) (printmaker)

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

  • 31.6 x 22.7 cm (sheet of paper)

  • Added to 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)