Group of Horsemen at the Right of Raphael's Fresco Pope Leo Stopping Attila, in the Sala D'Eliodoro, 1928.6

This drawing shows armored soldiers on rearing horses, their bodies twisted in dynamic poses as they face a divine intervention. In the background, trumpeters blow horns amidst a dense throng of figures, capturing the chaotic atmosphere of a retreating army. The work focuses on the expressive anatomy and movement characteristic of the figures on the 'barbarian' side of the original Vatican composition.

The original fresco in the Vatican Stanze represents the divine protection of the Church against external chaos, a central theme in Renaissance political theology. It reflects the humanist ideal of the Papacy as a restorer of divine order (ordo) and the 'Pax Romana' against 'barbaric' disorder, a concept deeply rooted in the Neoplatonic social philosophy prevalent in the courts of Popes Julius II and Leo X.