Study of a youth’s head from Raphael's Disputa (after a drawing by Josef Bergler)

František Tkadlík started his studies at the Prague Academy of drawing in March 1803 at the age of sixteen. At that time, initial studies at the Prague Academy consisted of making copies of selected models, which were intended to fix in the students’ minds chosen concepts from the aesthetic canon. These led to the students later creating their original compositions, based on the experience they had gained making copies combined with their independent studies of the human body - nude figures.