This website presents our knowledge and research on this important aspect of the Royal Collection. As of April 2026 it will not be regularly updated and new research on this topic will sit within the main website.

Visit the Royal Collection

Vatican Frescoes

Vatican Frescoes

      AFTER RAPHAEL (URBINO 1483-ROME 1520)

      Euclid instructing his pupils

      c.1853-76

      Albumen print | 24.1 x 32.0 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 852564

      A photograph of a drawing by Raphael (c.1509) now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (inv. no.WA1846.194).

      The drawing is a preliminary study for the group of figures occurring in the right foreground of Raphael's 'School of Athens', painted in c.1509-10 in the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican. It is now generally thought that the stooping figure drawing a geometric figure with the aid of a compass is Euclid, who (according to Vasari) is depicted in the likeness of Bramante.

      • Creator(s)

        After Raphael (Urbino 1483-Rome 1520) (artist)

      • 24.1 x 32.0 cm (sheet of paper)

      • Acquired for the Prince Consort's Raphael Collection (c.1853-76)

      • Subject(s)
        • Natural Sciences & Mathematics
          • Mathematics
            • Geometry
        • Places
          • Europe
            • Italy
              • Lazio [Italy]
                • Rome [Lazio]
                  • Vatican City [Rome]
                    • Vatican Palace [Vatican City]
                      • Stanza della Segnatura [Vatican Palace]
                        • Vatican-Stanza della Segnatura-School of Athens
      • Bibliographic reference(s)

        p.189, no.228r (Joannides 1983 : Joannides, P., 1983. The Drawings of Raphael, with a complete catalogue, Oxford)

      PreviousNext
      PreviousNext