'Three female heads'

Glass plate negative of a drawing, or a reproduction of it, attributed to a member of Raphael's studio now in the Teylers Museum, Haarlem (inv. no. A 66).

Two of the three female heads depicted here are connected to known compositions by Raphael. The top left head is identical to that of Venus in 'Venus entreating Jupiter', a pendentive fresco in the Villa Farnesina, Agostino Chigi's villa in Rome, which was frescoed with mythological subjects by Raphael's workshop c.1518 (see RCIN 853960 for a photograph of the fresco and RCIN 853914.d for a print reproducing the scene of Venus entreating Jupiter).

The bottom head is close to that of the Madonna in a drawing now in the Louvre (inv. no. 3862; for a photograph of the drawing, see RCIN 851036) for the 'Holy Family of Francis I', a painting attributed to Raphael and his workshop (1518) currently in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. no.604). The top right head has not been linked to any Raphaelesque compositions, but it "may well be connected with Psyche in The Council of Gods on the Farnesina ceiling", or to other figures in the same fresco.

The glass plate negative has been photographed showing the coated side and therefore the image appears laterally reversed. Prints from this negative exist in the Collection, (RCIN 854440).