The figures would look as wrong as in a round frame they look right.

If you were to cut off a bit of the foreground in any of his pictures and add the extra piece to the sky, you would make the whole look wrong, whereas perhaps you might add on a piece of sky to Hubert van Eyck's 'Three Maries' without spoiling the effect.
[Illustration: THE KNIGHT'S DREAM From the picture by Raphael, in the National Gallery, London] The colouring of the picture, too, is jewel-like and lovely, but the uncoloured drawing is itself full of charm.

The grace of line, which was to distinguish all the works of his mature years, is already manifest in this effort of his boyhood.

It seems to foretell the sweep of the Virgin's drapery in the Sistine Madonna, and the delightful maze of curves flowing together and away again and returning upon themselves which outline the face, the arms, hands, and draperies of St.Catherine in the National Gallery.

You will find it well worth a little trouble to look long and closely at one of Raphael's well-known Madonnas till you clearly see how the composition of all the parts of it is formed by the play of long and graceful curves.
You can see from the drawing of the 'Knight's Dream,' which is hung quite near the painting in the National Gallery, how carefully Raphael thought out the detail of the picture before he began to paint.