The Presentation of the Virgin

A print after a drawing attributed on plate to Raphael when in the Praun Collection at Nuremberg. Lettered with title and production details. Published in J.T.G. Prestel, 'Dessins des meilleurs peintres d'Italie, d'Allemagne, et des Pays-bas, du Cabinet de Monsieur Paul de Praun à Nuremberg', Dusseldorf 1780, plate 26. The composition is also known through an engraving attributed to Giovanni Antonio da Brescia dating c.1525 (RCIN 851408) which is supposed to reproduce a lost design (by Raphael or his workshop) possibly related to one of the predella scenes of the 'Monteluce Altarpiece'. The main panel - now in the Pinacoteca Vaticana, Vatican City (inv. no.40359; see RCIN 851401) - was executed by Giulio Romano and Giovanni Francesco Penni in 1525, but was originally commissioned from Raphael in 1505 by the nuns of Santa Chiara of Monteluce, Perugia. The predella - currently housed in the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria at Perugia - was entrusted to Berto di Giovanni in 1505 and completed in c.1524-5. A drawing currently in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. no.4264) might have served as modello for the engraving by Giovanni Antonio da Brescia (see Cordellier/Py 1992, no.992).