The Three Graces by Raphael
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ATTRIBUTED TO FRA ANGELICO (C. 1400-1455)

Recto: The bust of a cleric. Verso: A group of figures

Metalpoint, touches of pen and ink, and white heightening, on orange prepared paper. Verso: Pen and ink | RCIN 912812

Few drawings survive by the great Florentine painter Fra Angelico. This study conveys a vivid three-dimensionality through purposeful strokes of white heightening on coloured paper. It may be preparatory for Fra Angelico’s frescos of the life of St Lawrence, in the chapel of Pope Nicholas V in the Vatican.


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