Study from the nude

Summary

A reproduction produced by the Vasari Society of a drawing by Raphael. The drawing is in red chalk and shows a female nude from her right-hand side. The figure is reaching upwards with her left arm, which is cut off by the top edge of the sheet. She is in a kneeling position, and her right hand is holding an indistinct object. To the right of the figure is a drawing of part of a face, with an eye prominent, and below this is a study of a pair of hands. Text from the accompanying booklet produced by the Vasari Society: "8. RAPHAEL (b. 1483; d. 1520) STUDY FROM THE NUDE Collection of the Duke of Devonshire, K.G., Chatsworth. Red chalk, 27.8 x 18.6 cm. (10 15/16 x 7 5/16 in.). This admirable study, which Crowe and Cavalcaselle connect with the kneeling figures in the background of the Incendio, Fischel with the Mass of Bolsena, seems to me rather to belong to the series of red chalk drawings for the Fable of Cupid and Psyche in the Farnesina. It is almost certainly from the same model as the drawings in the Louvre of Psyche before Venus, and of a naked girl in profile to the left and of that at Windsor of The Three Graces, all of which Fischel characterizes as copies or by Giulio Romano, while accepting the present drawing. The figure might be a preliminary study for the spandril with Psyche giving the salve of Proserpina to Venus, though it is difficult to see how it could be fitted into the V-shaped space; or it might conceivably be a study for a cupbearer in the Wedding Feast of Cupid and Psyche. The drawing of part of a face and of two hands as if holding something on the right of the sheet, does not help in proving or disproving a connexion with the Cupid and Psyche frescoes. A. E. P. [O. Fischel. Raphael's Zeichnungen, Strassburg, 1898, No. 197, with references to earlier reproductions and descriptions.]"