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Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Hover to magnify, click for fullscreen
Original fileThis pen-and-ink drawing captures a female figure in a complex, twisting pose, viewed from the back with her head tilted to the side. The artist focuses intensely on the heavy, sculptural folds of the garment and how they define the underlying form of the body. It is a working sketch used to refine the appearance of one of the Muses for a major Vatican mural.
The figure is a study for the 'Parnassus' fresco, which represents the Neoplatonic ideal of divine inspiration and the harmony of the arts. Within the Stanza della Segnatura, this imagery illustrates the faculty of Poetry as a bridge between the human mind and divine truth, a central theme in Renaissance natural philosophy.
Raffaello d'urbino
Translation
Raphael of Urbino
Marsilio Ficino
Ficino's Neoplatonic concept of 'divine frenzy' (poetic inspiration) provided the intellectual framework for the depiction of Apollo and the Muses in the Vatican.
Object
Oil on panel
mythological
Digital Source
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
https://sammlungenonline.albertina.at/ "Raffaello Santi" (KÜNSTLER_IN) Graphische Sammlung (Sammlung)
850 × 944 px
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3-flash-preview on April 2, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.