A man seen from behind

A photograph of a drawing depicting a man seen from behind now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice (inv. no. 59 verso). This drawing features on the verso of a depiction of two men and a child (see RCIN 854278 for a photograph of the recto).

Ruland (1876) catalogued this drawing as a preparatory study for the figure at the left of another drawing in the Gallerie dell'Accademia (see RCIN 854275 for a photograph of it). The Venetian museum (see Bibliographic References) recognised the figure of the drawing catalogued here as a copy after a work by Luca Signorelli (without identifying the specific source for it: the frescoes in Monte Oliveto Maggiore, the painting of the Martyrdom of St Sebastian and the frescoes in Orvieto are mentioned).

This drawing is part of the so-called "Libretto di Raffaello" or "Libretto Veneziano", 53 sheets that used to be mounted in a volume. After complicated negotiations, the sketchbook was bought by the museum in the 1820s, after the death of Giuseppe Bossi, who was its previous owner. A number of scholars debated the author of the drawings (with many names proposed, such as Pinturicchio, Antonio da Viterbo, Eusebio del Giorgio, Girolamo Genga) and their date. In 1984, the Gallerie dell'Accademia catalogued the drawings as by an artist contemporary to Raphael, whose juvenile works he copied in this sketchbook (see Bibliographic References).

A copy of this photograph (RCIN 854277) can be found in the Prince Consort's Raphael Collection, portfolio 47 (970607)