A study for the Last Supper

A photograph of a silver-point study heightened with white for the figures of Judas and St Bartholomew in the fresco of the Last Supper, thought to have been executed by Perugino, painted on the walls of the refectory (now a museum) of the former Convent of Fuligno in Florence and traditionally dated c.1493-1496.

Ruland (1876) notes that the drawing was then "in the collection of W. Russell, Esq". This drawing is now in the British Museum (inv. no. 1910,0212.35), where it is catalogued as a copy after Perugino's fresco. The drawing was bought (probably after Russell's death) by George Salting (1836-1909) who bequeathed it in 1910 to the British Museum.

The fresco – which also depicts the scene of the Agony in the Garden in the background – was discovered in the 19th century and initially attributed to Raphael, but now it is believed to be by Pietro Perugino. A number of scholars debated the involvement of the workshop in this fresco and the date it was executed. In a recent exhibition catalogue, Padovani attributed the fresco to Perugino, describing the involvement of the workshop as secondary and minimal and dating the decoration towards the end of the 1470s, before the frescoes executed by Perugino in the Sistine Chapel (c.1481-1482). See Bibliographic References.

Ruland (1876) notes that the fresco was "in the former Nunnery of S. Onofrio, now in the Egyptian Museum, Florence". In 1855, the rooms of the Convent were used to accommodate the Egyptian Museum, which was later moved to its current location in Palazzo della Crocetta.