The fourth hour of the night and the first of the day

An aquatint by Philibert Louis Debucourt, representing the fourth hour of the night and the first hour of the day. This print is lettered with the title in Italian at the bottom of the image, publication details and the identification of Raphael as the painter of the fresco. Signed by the printmaker. This print was probably part of a larger publication (see also RCIN 854108).

In the literature, the source for the representation of Hours of the Night and Day (see also RCINs 854108 and 854109) is not clear. According to Passavant, they might relate to some frescoes in a Roman palace executed by a pupil of Raphael, but Ruland (1876) writes that they could reproduce a decoration in one of the rooms in the Vatican (see Bibliographic References). Nevertheless, these representations appear close to elements of decoration in the fresco of the ceiling of the Sala dei Pontefici in the Borgia Apartment, Vatican, in particular to the dancing figures around the central medallion.

The vault of this room was frescoed with personifications of the Planets and Zodiac signs by Perin del Vaga and Giovanni da Udine, after September 1520 (when Sebastiano del Piombo writes in a letter to Michelangelo that this work had not been commissioned yet) but before 1524, when Parmigianino was commissioned by Pope Clement VII to decorate the walls of the room. The coat of arms of Pope Leo X is visible in the four corners of the room and therefore, at the time of his death in December 1521, the decoration must have been at a relatively advanced stage (see Bibliographic References for the different opinions about the end date).