A drapery study

A photograph of a drawing depicting a study of drapery for a standing figure now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice (inv. no. 82 recto). Annotated on the verso. This drawing features a portrait of Ptolemy and Beothius on the verso (see RCIN 854640 for a photograph of the verso).

This drawing, which has been retouched by a later hand, is catalogued by the Gallerie dell'Accademia (see Bibliographic References) as a study of a Peruginesque angel, for example that of the St Peter Altarpiece (c.1496-1500), now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon. This angel was then used as a model for the Oddi Altarpiece (or 'Pala Oddi'), executed by Raphael in 1503-04 and now in the Pinacoteca Vaticana, Vatican City (inv. no.334).

This drawing is part of the so-called "Libretto di Raffaello" or "Libretto Veneziano", 53 sheets that used to be mounted in a volume. After complicated negotiations, the sketchbook was bought by the museum in the 1820s, after the death of Giuseppe Bossi, who was its previous owner. A number of scholars debated the author of the drawings (with many names proposed, such as Pinturicchio, Antonio da Viterbo, Eusebio del Giorgio, Girolamo Genga) and their date. In 1984, the Gallerie dell'Accademia catalogued the drawings as by an artist contemporary to Raphael, whose juvenile works he copied in this sketchbook (see Bibliographic References).