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Exhibitions and records of works of art

Prince Albert recognised the importance of photography to record and document notable exhibitions and works of art

AFTER RAPHAEL (URBINO 1483-ROME 1520)

The head of a man

1860

Albumen print | 20.0 x 18.5 cm (image) | RCIN 2864195

A photograph of a drawing by Raphael (c.1505) now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lille (inv. no. 477). Annotated on the verso.

Joannides (see Bibliographic References) rejected the traditional opinion that this drawing was made for one of the heads in fresco The Trinity with Saints of San Severo (the upper part of which was painted by Raphael in the church of San Severo, Perugia), suggesting it could instead be for one of the figures intended to stand below.

The Trinity with Saints is Raphael's earliest known fresco, but was left unfinished at his death in 1520. The bottom half of the fresco was then completed by Perugino. See RCIN 853796 for a photograph of a preparatory drawing by Raphael, now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, for the fresco.

A copy of this photograph (RCIN 854433) can be found in the Prince Consort's Raphael Collection, portfolio 48 (970608)

  • Creator(s)

    After Raphael (Urbino 1483-Rome 1520) (draughtsman)

    Attributed to Robert Jefferson Bingham (1825-70) (photographer)

  • 20.0 x 18.5 cm (image)

  • Acquired by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

  • Subject(s)
    • Science, Medicine and Technology
      • Medical sciences
        • Anatomy
          • Heads
  • Bibliographic reference(s)

    Brejon de Lavergnée 1997 : Brejon de Lavergnée, B, 1997. Catalogue des dessins Italiens. Collections du Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, Paris
    p. 184, no. 529

    Joannides 1983 : Joannides, P., 1983. The Drawings of Raphael, with a complete catalogue, Oxford
    p. 157, no. 100