Two female figures painted onto the walls of the Vatican by Raphael more than 500 years ago have been rediscovered following a restoration project.
Representing Friendship and Justice, the two women are believed to have been painted by Raphael shortly before his death in 1520.
But their true value became hidden after his students added cherubs, soldiers and dragons to the walls surrounding his artwork following his death, causing his paintings to become lost inside the room's detailed scenery.
Researchers discovered the paintings in the Room of Constantine in the Papal Apartments of the Vatican during a restoration project.
Raphael was commissioned by the Vatican to decorate four rooms inside the Apartments in 1508 but was believed to have died before he could complete the project.
Records state that Raphael's plans for the room were executed by his assistants following his death.
However, rumours remained that Raphael had managed to add two oil paintings to the room before he died.
'We know from 16th-century sources that Raphael painted two figures in this room as tests in the oil technique before he died,' Arnold Nesselrath, a scientific researcher at the Vatican Museums, told La Stampa.
'According to the sources, these two oil painted figures are of a much higher quality than the ones around them.'
'Raphael was a great adventurer in painting and was always trying something different.