The heads in The Last Supper

A set of eleven etchings depicting the heads of the figures in the fresco of The Last Supper, thought to have been executed by Perugino, on the wall of the refectory (now museum) of the former Convent of Fuligno in Florence and traditionally dated c.1593-6.

Each print is lettered below the image with its title and it is signed with a monogram by the printmaker. Ruland (1876) writes that these prints were taken: "after tracings".

The etchings are part of a publication that includes other etchings of hands and feet, a title-page and a page of text relating to the discovery of the fresco around 1843 by the painter Ignazio Zotti. Zotti initially believed the fresco to be by Perugino, later changing the attribution according to the painter Carlo della Porta's opinion, who thought the fresco was by Raphael. Zotti was also responsible for the restoration of the fresco, during which operation he apparently discovered a signature by Raphael and the date 1505 ("RAP.VR.ANNO.MD.V").

The publication is dedicated to Frederick William IV of Prussia and was published in 1856.

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.1481-2). 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.