A sheet of studies including an astrological clock, the head of a bearded man, standing nudes and architectural details

The artist and biographer Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) was one of the first admirers of the draftsmanship of the celebrated Tuscan sculptor Raffaello da Montelupo: 'He drew in a very practical way, and understood the artistic things way better than his father Baccio' (G. Vasari, The Lives, 1568, IV, p. 296). A tour de force of architectural projects and decorative designs assembled together in organic continuity, the present sheet of studies justifies Vasari’s praise of Raffaello’s drawings. Possibly a leaf from the artist’s sketchbook, the sheet is powerfully drawn in Raffaello’s characteristic penmanship. It contains projects for a decorative clock or an astrolabe at top left, with various designs for architectural moldings drawn throughout the page. At center, a muscular figure seen from behind appears to represent Samson pushing the columns of the Philistine Temple, while the mask of the bearded satyr is also seen in a sheet in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. 715 verso).