Study for one of the muses in the 'Parnassus'

A lithographic facsimile of a drawing by Raphael (c.1510) now in the Albertina, Vienna (inv. no.219r). Lettered with artists' names. Published in N. Förster, Lithographirte Copien von Original Handzeichnungen berühmter alter Meister der Italienischen schule aus der Sammlung seiner Kaiserlichen Hoheit des durchlauchtigsten Erzherzogs Carl von Oesterreich, 2 vols., Vienna (Mansfeld et Comp.), 1829-34, V.

The drawing is a study for the figure of the muse seated to the left of Apollo in Raphael's fresco of Parnassus, painted in c.1510-11 in the Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican. Because in the fresco the figure is depicted holding a flute, it has been suggested that she may be Euterpe, the muse ruling over music.

Between 1829 and 1834 the lithographic printers Mansfeld and Company, who were based in Vienna, published two volumes of lithographic copies after drawings then in the collection of Archduke Charles of Austria, Duke of Teschen; volume one contained drawings attributed to the Italian school, and volume two the German and Flemish school.