Apollo on Parnassus

Around 1510, the influential painter Raphael began collaborating with the engraver Raimondi to translate his designs into prints, which allowed his works to reach an international audience. This engraving replicates Raphael’s design for a fresco he painted in the personal apartments of Pope Julius II (1443–1513), showing that devotion to classical ideas reached even the highest levels of religious authority. In addition to Apollo and his muses, Raphael portrayed some of history’s most celebrated poets on the Greek mountain Parnassus. On the left, next to a seated scribe, the ancient Greek poet Homer stands between the Latin poet Virgil (Roman, 70–19 BC) and the late medieval author Dante (Italian, about 1265–1321).