A portrait of Raphael as the Prophet Isaiah

An etching by Stefano Mulinari reproducing a drawing in the Uffizi, Florence (inv.no. 1341F) which is a copy after a lost drawing by Federico Zuccaro depicting Raphael in the guise of Isaiah following Raphael's fresco The Prophet Isaiah in the church of Sant'Agostino, Rome (c.1511-12). Lettered with attribution of the drawing to Zuccaro and the printmaker's signature. Plate 1 in Mulinari, Disegni originali d'eccellenti pittori esistenti nella R.Galleria di Firenze, Florence 1774.

Zuccaro's lost portrait of Raphael (see RCIN 853804 for a photograph of the drawing which copies it) is part of a group of four portraits by Federico of artists recorded in the eighteenth century; the other three depicted Michelangelo, Polidoro and Taddeo Zuccaro. See Brooks, Bibliographic References, for further information on these drawings.

Raphael's fresco The Prophet Isaiah (see RCIN 853797 for a print after the fresco) was commissioned by Johann Goritz, a curial prelate, humanist and patron of the arts, for a pier in Sant'Agostino. The fresco formed part of a decorative ensemble which also included a sculpture of the Virgin, Child and St Anne by Andrea Sansovino and an altar; Goritz's tomb lies below the pier. The monumental figure of Raphael's fresco especially reveals the influence of Michelangelo's work on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, though Raphael probably did not completely repaint the figure of Isaiah after seeing his contemporary's works, as Vasari claimed.