The Three Graces

Raimondi began to cooperate with Raphael shortly after his arrival in Rome. Renaissance artists studied Classical Antiquity zealously. Raphael’s interest in it was, however, somewhat deeper. Pope Leo X appointed him the administrator of the classical relics, and the ensuing duties brought him to more focused examination of the Roman relics - for example the Pantheon - as well as to the attempts at drawing the plan of the imperial Rome. He was moreover inspired by the classical iconography and the formal perfection of the classical art. For instance, the newly revealed palace of Emperor Nero, Domus aurea, with its splendid stucco and fresco decoration, became an enormous source of inspiration not only for Raphael but also for entire generations of artists. The motif of The Three Graces was most probably inspired by a scene displayed on the sarcophagus from the Vatican Museums, which seems also to have been a model for Raphael’s 1504 painting on the same subject, held by Musée Condé in Chantilly. The present print by Raimondi is a rare work, of which only a few impressions have survived, but it was repeatedly copied in its time.