Portrait of a Young Woman

There is relatively little information available on this preparatory drawing

The artwork continues Raphael's interest in capturing the female form, be it shoulder-length or full length portraits. The Renaissance masters proclaimed the importance of practice and repetition in order to perfect their skills as draughtsmen.

With little supporting evidence, a logical estimate for this drawing would be around the mid-1510s. Most of the drawings featured in this section are from around that period. Dark chalk is also likely to be the medium used here.

The majority of detail in this artwork is around the facial features, with the rest of her pose being more of a rough draft just to lay out the composition. This is common for study artworks where the artist is purely concentrating on one particular element of the final painting that followed.

Portraits are well known for their complexity, requiring large amounts of training and practice. A poorly constructed portrait will immediately draw attention to its failures.