Angel with uplifted arms

Summary

A reproduction produced by the Vasari Society of a drawing by Raphael. The drawing is in red chalk, and shows a clothed angel with both arms raised in the air and head facing downwards. All fingers of the right hand and the index finger of the left hand are outstretched. The legs are incomplete, but the angel appears to be seated. The tip of the visible wing is cut off by the right-hand edge of the paper. Text from the accompanying booklet produced by the Vasari Society: "9. RAPHAEL (b. 1483; d. 1520) ANGEL WITH UPLIFTED ARMS Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Presented to the University by a Body of Subscribers, 1846. From the Wicar and Lawrence Collections. Red chalk. 19.6 x 16.8 cm. (7 3/4 x 6 9/16 in.). Before the year 1516 Raphael prepared the cartoons for the Planets in the Chigi Chapel (S. Maria del Popolo). The fact that these compositions have been executed in 'crabbed' mosaic instead of fresco has doubtless obscured their transcendent merit. In Raphael’s entire work he has never shown a more compact or original set of designs. Their hold upon Alfred Stevens was constant, and this superb sanguine study for the angel of the Planet Jupiter anticipates in many ways the manner of the accomplished Englishman. C. R. [Robinson, Critical Account, p. 268, No. 129.]"