Giovanni Santi. A Woman Standing Before Rocks, about 1480, off-green body color preparation, stylus underdrawing, pen and iron-gall wash, lead-white body color. Royal Collection ©2000 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Raphael learned the craftsman-like role of drawings while an assistant in the workshops of Perugino and Pinturicchio and assimilated the style and exploratory techniques of masters working in Florence, including Leonardo da Vinci.

While indebted to his predecessors and contemporary draftsmen, he developed his own distinctive vocabulary.

The graceful muse drawn by Raphael's father, Giovanni Santi, represents the type of stock figure that was often conserved in fifteenth-century workshops for reuse in different paintings.