This website presents our knowledge and research on this important aspect of the Royal Collection. As of April 2026 it will not be regularly updated and new research on this topic will sit within the main website.

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New Testament subjects

New Testament subjects

      CHARLES THURSTON THOMPSON (1816-68)

      The Pietá

      c.1860-76

      Carbon print | 23.9 x 21.8 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 850463

      A photograph of a drawing depicting The Pietá attributed to the school of Raphael now in the Royal Library, Windsor (RCIN 912747).

      This drawing served as a modello for an engraving by Giulio Bonasone, which shows some differences with the drawing: the pillow supporting Christ's head, the background and the rock at the right are not depicted in the drawing. See RCIN 850462 for the print. Popham and Wilde (see Bibliographic References) believe this drawing to have been executed at the same time as the late drawings for the Vatican Logge, which were frescoed by Raphael's workshop c. 1517-9.

      • Creator(s)

        Charles Thurston Thompson (1816-68) (photographer)

        After a work attributed to the workshop of Raphael (1483-1520) (artist)

      • 23.9 x 21.8 cm (sheet of paper)

      • Acquired for the Prince Consort's Raphael Collection (c.1860-76)

      • Subject(s)
        • Religion & Theology
          • Religions and faiths
            • Christianity
              • Life of Christ
                • Passion of Christ
                  • Christ-Lamentation (Madonna & Others)
              • Devotional images of the Virgin Mary(Christ absent)
                • Virgin Mary-Lamentating (as single figure)
              • Devotional Images of Christ
                • Pietá
        Object type(s)
          • visual works
            • photographs
      • Bibliographic reference(s)

        P&W : Popham, A.E. & Wilde, J., 1949. The Italian Drawings of the XV and XVI Centuries in the Collection of His Majesty The King at Windsor Castle, London p. 319, no. 816

        Raphael Invenit 1985 : G. Bernini Pezzini et al., Raphael Invenit. Stampe di Raffaello nelle Collezioni dell'Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica, Rome, 1985 p.174, no. VII.5 (entry written by Stefania Massari)

        Other number(s)

        Ruland p.39 C.XVIII.2

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