A study of St James and St Peter for the Last Supper

A photograph of a silver-point study heightened with white for the figures of St Peter and St James 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.1494-1496.

This drawing is now in the Uffizi (inv. no. 1725E) where it is catalogued as by Pietro Perugino and Ruland (1876) notes that was "exhibited with the fresco". This sheet and RCIN 854067 originally formed the same drawing (at some point cut in two) and were both donated in the 19th century to be exhibited with the fresco, possibly in order to corroborate its attribution to Raphael. This sheet was donated in 1849 by the painter Giulio Piatti and then exhibited from 1871.   

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.