This library is built in the open.
If you spot an error, have a suggestion, or just want to say hello — we’d love to hear from you.
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Hover to magnify, click for fullscreen
Original fileThis drawing uses intricate cross-hatching to capture the physical weight and anatomical detail of human figures in repose. In the upper left, three small putti are grouped together in an attitude of mourning or observation. The scene is a preparatory sketch for a larger composition, focusing on the arrangement of figures within a solemn, funereal space.
As a preparatory study for Raphael's 'Entombment' (1507), this work engages with the Renaissance 'memento mori' tradition. It reflects the philosophical tension between the material decay of the human body and the spiritual immortality of the soul, a central theme in the Neoplatonic circles of the High Renaissance.
BM 1963 - 12 - 16 - 1
Marsilio Ficino
Ficino's Neoplatonic theories on the immortality of the soul provided the intellectual framework for Renaissance artistic meditations on death and the corporal vessel.
Object
Oil on panel
religious
Digital Source
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/search?agent=Raphael&technique=drawn&view=grid&sort=object_name__asc&page=1
2500 × 1839 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.