Study of a Warrior on Horseback, ca. 1511 – 1512

About the Work

Raphael’s fresco of the Meeting of Pope Leo the Great and Attila in the Stanza d’Eliodoro in the Vatican recounts how the king of the Huns is forced to retreat by the power of the Church and Christendom. An early study ultimately not used for the fresco, the fine silverpoint drawing with white heightening from the Städel collection investigates the heathen soldiers’ abrupt standstill and about-face. The figure is shown nude, his clothing merely alluded to; at the bottom right his torso is repeated, now wearing a cuirass. The horse is effectively described with no more than a few lines.