Eight Apostles

This drawing shows a series of heads and shoulders of men, likely studies for a larger group composition. The figures are rendered with expressive line work, capturing various ages and facial features, with one figure on the left shown with hands clasped in prayer. It consists of two separate sheets of paper that have been joined to form a horizontal frieze.

This is a preparatory study for Raphael's 'The Charge to Peter,' one of the Sistine Chapel tapestry cartoons. It illustrates the High Renaissance effort to give biblical figures the dignity and psychological depth championed by the humanist and Neoplatonic scholars of the Roman and Florentine courts.