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About This Work
This drawing captures a figure draped in heavy robes, focusing on the weight and complex folds of the fabric. The figure, identified as Virgil, holds a large volume in one hand and raises the other in a gesture of address or guidance. This sketch is a working study where the artist concentrated on the fall of light and the physical posture rather than the facial features.
Virgil was venerated in the Renaissance as a 'vates' (prophet-poet) whose works were seen as classical precursors to Christian prophecy, particularly his Fourth Eclogue. In the context of the Stanza della Segnatura, he represents the Neoplatonic ideal of the 'prisca theologia', or ancient wisdom, that harmonizes classical literature with theological truth.
Connected Texts
Dante Alighieri
Virgil serves as the personification of human reason and the guide through the afterlife in the Divine Comedy, a text central to the intellectual program of Raphael's Parnassus.