Три грации

Raphael painted this tiny panel, only about 17 centimetres square, soon after he arrived in Florence around 1504. He was in his early twenties and had come to the city where Leonardo and Michelangelo were both working, and you can feel him testing himself against them. This is one of his first real attempts at the female nude, three figures from Roman myth linked arm in arm, each holding a golden apple. When conservators studied the panel they found a drawing underneath that tells you how carefully he thought about it. In the first version only the Grace on the left held an apple. He changed his mind and gave one to each of the three, so the picture would balance. It is a small private thing, likely made for a single owner rather than a church or a hall, and it has been at the Condé museum in Chantilly, north of Paris, since the 19th century.