An interior scene

An outline etching depicting an interior scene, catalogued by Ruland (1876) as after a painting by Parmigianino depicting the charity of St Nicholas. This print is lettered with a title and the identification of Parmigianino as the inventor of this composition. Signed by the printmaker. This print was published as plate 31 in C.P. Landon, Vie Vies et œuvres des peintres les plus célèbres de toutes les écoles, 1805. Annotated on the verso. Trimmed within the platemark.

The figure of the woman near the window in the centre of the print is very close to the one depicted in a drawing now in the Uffizi, Florence (inv. no. 1973 F), where it is catalogued as by Raphael. This drawing is dated by Joannides 1514 (see Bibliographic References). This drawing was traditionally catalogued as by Parmigianino (Bartsch suggested this print was after a drawing either by Raphael or Parmigianino). More recently, archival documents have proved the attribution of the drawing to Raphael (see Bibliographic References).

The female figure has been variously interpreted as Danae (on the basis of a later inscription on the drawing) or most likely as the representation of St Helena (as in a painting by Paolo Veronese, now in the National Gallery, London, inv. no. NG1041; see RCIN 852329 for a photograph of this painting). According to the story, St Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, during her quest to discover the location of the True Cross (the cross on which Christ had been crucified) received divine help whilst dreaming.

In the drawing in the Uffizi the woman is depicted on the left, with various studies for God the Father appearing to Moses and architectural studies for St Peter's Basilica. The first set of studies is related to the composition of Moses before the Burning Bush, designed by Raphael and painted in the vault of the Stanza di Eliodoro in the Vatican.